Hayfever kicking in early with itchy eyes for me this week and countered with eye-drops. Whilst taking the day gently, I began planning my STEM talk to year 11 students on Wednesday. In the early evening, Jane and I spent an enjoyable dinner and conversation with L, S and S's parents, who we were meeting for the first time. Got on really well and, I hope, avoided embarrassing L&S. The venue was the Red Lion in Grantchester, who were great hosts, providing excellent food at reasonable prices. Back home, watched the film 'Florence Foster Jenkins' on demand, with Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant.
Rather reluctantly trawled the media for news on BrexiTrump. UK News attempting to anticipate Budget.
President Trump's allegations that Obama ordered his phone tapped are obviously having the desired effect in dominating the news The White House is asking for the possibility of Trump tower wiretapping to be included in House and Senate Intelligence Committee investigations. This is generally seen as a distraction tactic from the ongoing investigation into the Trump campaign links to Russia.
Trump may have been extrapolating from a known specific authorised wiretap on Trump tower servers in the public domain to a more general one of 'his phone being tapped'.
The US legal situation re the president's powers is that he can only authorise a wiretap, without a court order, through the Attorney General if no US Citizens are involved. Otherwise, orders are applied for by the Justice Department/FBI from the Foreign Intelligence Court (Fisa court) and are regulated by the 'Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act'. A narrow warrant WAS issued for tapping a Trump tower server in October 2016, with regards to investigating the campaign links with Russia. This was NOT for tapping Trump's phone.
A good summary here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39172635
Information on FISA and wiretapping here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act
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