Revelations overshadow trumps first 100 days . Who is telling the truth . Complete coverage this morning as we break down the russian connection. From abc news, its a special edition of this week. Here now, coanchor martha raddatz. Good morning. Just five days ago, the and that wellreceived speech to congress. And now, whatever goodwill he had seemingly blown away in a saturday morning tweet storm. Even by his own standards, the president leveled an extraordinary accusation against his predecessor. Accusing former president barack obama of wiretapping him last october during the critical final weeks of the election. President obama has denied any direct involvement through a spokesman saying, neither president obama nor any white house official ever ordered surveillance on any u. S. Citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false. This hour, the search for the truth. Two questions well seek to answer. Is it possible that there was a legally sanctioned wiretap at trump tower . Did a court approve surveillance based on evidence the public does not yet know . And second, if mr. Trump is flat out wrong, what made him level this extraordinary charge . Did the man who has daily access to the deepest levels of u. S. Intelligence base his claims on something he read on the internet . Here to help us answer these questions, we have spokespeople for both president s trump and obama. Plus senator al franken, whose question to Jeff Sessions focused attention on those ties to russia. Chief washington correspondent Jonathan Karl joins us in a moment. With what may have motivated trump to tweet. But we begin with chief investigative correspondent brian ross and what we know about trumps incredible accusation. Reporter President Trumps twitter outbursts came just before sunrise at the private Palm Beach Club the president likes to call the winter white house. Terrible. Just found out that obama had my wires tapped in trump tower just before the victory. Nothing found. That was followed by four more president ial tweets taking on president obama and misspelling tap. How low has president obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process . This is nixon watergate. Bad or sick guy. White house officials this morning say they do not know the basis for the president s allegations. A topsecret intelligence briefing . Or whether it came from reading an article on the conservative breitbart website posted friday that detailed speculation from a conspiracyloving talk show host, mark levin. How many of trumps people were eavesdropped on . Had their conversations recorded, transcribed . Because this, ladies and gentlemen, is the big scandal. Rar spokesperson reporter a spokesperson for president obama called the allegations false. Ben rhodes responded to the tweets. No president can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you. Even a senator from the president s own party, along with u. S. Intelligence officials, called trumps claims a troubling development. I am very worried. Im very worried that our president is suggesting that the former president has done something illegal. Reporter the president s twitter raids this weekend did serve to keep the focus on russia, and contacts between the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak and five top trump advisors, that includes two meetings with attorney general Jeff Sessions. Revealed this week. Leading him to recuse himself from any investigations into the Trump Campaign. I feel like i should not be involved in investigating a campaign i had no role in. Reporter last april, when trump gave his first major Foreign Policy address its time to shake the rust of americas Foreign Policy. Reporter video of the event uncovered by abc news reveals the Russian Ambassador arriving right before trump, being shown to a front row seat. Until this week, the president denied when asked by cecilia vega that anyone from his campaign had met with the russians. Did you or anyone your campaign have any contact with russia leading up to or during the campaign . Nothing at all . Reporter none, at all, he said. Now, that answer no longer stands. We need to know, is anyone compromised . Is there a risk to the country because someone is compromised . Reporter we do know the fbi is investigating if there was possible collusion between russian spies and the Trump Campaign. If there was a wiretap, actual evidence would have to be provided to obtain approval from a special panel of federal judges, not the white house. In fact, anyone other than the president would break the law to reveal such a wiretap. No u. S. Official contacted by abc news would confirm trumps allegation that trump bugged by the fbi. Martha . Thank you, brian. Jonathan karl joins me now. And jonathan, what are you hearing from your sources at the white house . Well be talking to the white house directly in just a few moments. What are you hearing why donald trump did that . These allegations made over twitter caught the west wing by surprise. They had no idea this was coming. Had no idea what the president was talking about. After the tweets went out, you had something of a mad scramble, martha, in the west wing, trying to figure out what was he talking about . Is there evidence, a search to find out if the allegations, the explosive allegations the president just made were, in fact, true. As of now, i see no indication they found any evidence that trump towers phones were tapped, let alone the idea that president obama would have ordered such a thing. As we just heard brian ross say, was it from this breitbart report . Uh, theres no indication its anything beyond the speculation that was in conservative media, including that breitbart report. There was an interview that aired on fox nows, the day before, an interview with paul ryan. He was specifically asked about this. Paul ryan said he just didnt know. Theres also speculation that he saw that interview, as well. President trump is down in florida this weekend. At maralago. You have reported there was a very tense meeting on friday. This was quite a scene, martha. In the oval office, the president summons his senior staff. Including Reince Priebus, chief of staff, Steven Bannon, don mcgann. Jared kushner. Im told he went ballistic. Thats the way it was described to me. Infuriated specifically at the fact that the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, recused himself from this investigation. Trump, the president , saw this as emboldening his democratic critics. He said, we never should have given ground. Theres no reason for him to recuse. Nobodys done anything wrong. He left that meeting, went to florida, didnt take his senior staff with him. Im told by two sources that Reince Priebus and Steven Bannon both said well stay behind and work on this. And then came the tweets. At 6 30 the next morning. Then came those. Thanks so much, jon. As jon just mentioned, the white house has not appeared before cameras to explain what the president meant, until now. Lets bring in live white house spokesperson Sarah Huckabee sanders. Thank you for joining us. Good morning. These are extremely serious charges the president is making. Where is he getting this information . Look, i think there have been quite a few reports. I know that jonathan and others earlier in the program mentioned that that it was all conservative media. Thats not true. The New York Times and bbc talked about the potential of this having happened. The bigger thing is, lets find out. If theyre going to investigation russia ties, lets include this as part of it. Thats what were asking. Was the principal source the breitbart story, which links to the New York Times. But the New York Times doesnt say anything definitive. Donald trump does. Theres nothing equivocating about what he says. I just found out that obama had my wires tapped. Thats not looking into something. He says it happened. Look, i think the bigger thing is you guys are always telling us to take the media seriously. Well, we are today. Were taking the reports that places like the New York Times, fox news, bbc, multiple outlets have reported this. All were saying is, lets take a closer look. Lets look into this. If it happened, if this is accurate. This is the biggest overreach. The biggest scandal. Youre not saying lets look into this. The president of the United States is accusing the former president of wiretapping him. I think that this is again, something that if this happened, martha. If, if, if, if. I agree. Why is the president saying it did happen . Look, i think hes going off of information that he has seen that has led him to believe that this is a very real potential. If it is, this is the greatest overreach in the greatest abuse of power that i think we have ever seen and a huge attack on democracy itself. And the American People have a right to know if this took place. Okay. The president tissue let me say again, the president said this did take place. Why does he believe these articles that you say you cite and im saying, they are not definitive. The breitbart brings them all together. And heat street. They have two sources with links to the counterIntelligence Community. Thats it. Anonymous sources. The president constantly says he doesnt like Anonymous Sources. And he doesnt like leakers. I love how Anonymous Sources dont count when its something thats positive in this administration and against the former one. You guys use Anonymous Sources every single day. Is that the bar . But it is the president yes, yes, we do. Yes, we do. But the president believe this is but whats the bar there . What does the president believe . Look, i think hes made very clear what he believes. Hes asking that we get down to the bottom of this. Lets get the truth here. Lets find out. I think the bigger story is not who reported it but is it true . I think the American People have a right to know if this happened. Because if it did, again this is the largest abuse of power that i think weve ever seen. Okay. Let me just say one more time. The president said, i bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that president obama was tapping my phones in october. So the president believes it is true . I would say that his tweet speaks for itself there. . The Washington Post says this morning that senior u. S. Officials with knowledge of wideranging federal investigation into russian interference into the election said there had been no wiretap. Theyve also said theres no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Trump Administration, or the Trump Campaign in coordination. But that doesnt seem to matter to the media. That point gets continued to be ignored over and over again. We have been on this for six months. You guys continue to ignore that and continue to bring up the investigation. All were asking is that we have the same level of look into the potential that the Obama Administration wiretapped trump tower. The obama president obama, through a spokesman, denied any direct involvement. Does President Trump not believe him . I think they dont have the best track record. They say they had a cardinal rule. Well, frankly, thats just not true. The president himself got directly involved in the email scandal with Hillary Clinton. You dont believe him when he says that doesnt happen . The attorney general met privately and secretly with bill clinton during the middle of the investigation. So to pretend like this is a very clean and credible source, im just not buying it. Do you believe there was a fisa order . Even if president obama didnt order it . I think there certainly could have been. It sounds like theres something we should look into and verify. Is the Trump Administration thats above my pay grade. I think that thats something that white House Counsel would have to answer. We owe to it the American People to look into it. If there was an order, there would have to be probable cause shown before it was granted. Evidence of wrongdoing. So suspect the president , by saying, this, indeed, happened, confirming that the investigation had enough evidence to get a fisa order . Im not sure if they can create wrongdoing. Theyve been trying to make the case for it. The fbi says this is b. S. The house intelligence chair says theres no evidence of it. But i dont know that that would indicate that Intelligence Services wouldnt have attempted to see if there was something at that point in october. And a fisa courtordered wiretap is highly classified information. Why is it acceptable for the president to tweet Something Like that out . I dont think hes tweeting out classified information. Hes talking about, could this have happened . Did this happen . Once again, he said it did happen. Everybody acts like President Trump is the one that came up with the idea and threw it out there. There are multiple news outlets that have reported this. All were asking is that we get the same level of look into the Obama Administration and the potential that they had for a complete abuse of power that theyve been claiming that we have done over the last six months. And time and time again, its been said, theres no evidence there was wrongdoing. The fbi says this is b. S. Yet you guys continue to hammer and hammer some false idea and false narrative that theres something there when frankly, there just isnt. I want to say donald trump started this on saturday morning. Talking about this. I hardly say he started this when there were multiple news reports. Many months ago, President Trump has consistently complained about leakers. If these stories are true, if heat street has two sources, they say are linked to counterintelligence, are you going to go after those leakers . Look, we take every leak seriously in the white house. Whether it is something that helps us or not. We cannot have people leaking classified information at any level. And we certainly take that very seriously and would not ignore that. Have you ever heard these allegations from the president before . I have not had a conversation with him about these personally before. Had anyone . Had he consulted anyone before he tweeted that he was going to put these explosive allegations out . I cant speak 100 whether he did or not. Im not sure. Couldnt the president declassify these things if he wanted to . You know, i dont think thats necessary. I think what is necessary is congress doing its job. Let them investigate this. Let them do exactly what theyve done on our end and see whether theres something there. I think there is a lot of reporting that indicates there certainly is. Do you think there should be a special prosecutor to look at this . I dont think were there yet. I think we need to let congress do their job. I think thats where we need to start. Again, i think thats the first place to go. And we see what happens from there. Can you tell us anything about the meeting that President Trump had last night with attorney general Jeff Sessions . Did they meet . I believe they had dinner, yes. They did. And the subject . Look, hes the attorney general of the United States. Um who recused himself this week. Hes one of the cabinet members for the president. We have a lot of activity ongoing. Potential for an e. O. Coming out at some point that would certainly involve the attorney general. I would imagine that came up during dinner. Does the president still believe attorney general Jeff Sessions should not have recused himself . The president believes Jeff Sessions is a good man and that he didnt do anything wrong. So i certainly feel that he didnt feel it was necessary. But he also is very supportive of the attorney general. And did the white house ask attorney general sessions specifically not to recuse himself . Look, the white house was not involved in the details of, you know, what that decision process looked like. I know the attorney general met with the ethics counsel at the department of justice. He made that decision not by direction of the white house. I just want to go back again, to the president s tweet. One more time. And sean spicer tweeting today. Reports concerning potentially politically motivated investigation immediately ahead of the 2016 election are very troubling. Sounds like the white house is doubling down on what President Trump says happened. As we should, martha. If this happened, once again, this would be the greatest abuse of power and overreach that has probably ever occurred in the executive branch. What about the accusation . You keep saying, if, if, if. The president of the United States said it was a fact. He didnt say, i read a story in breitbart or the New York Times or wherever else. He said, just found out that obama had my wires tapped in trump tower. Thats not an if. Look, i i will let the president speak for himself. But in terms of where we are in the white house, our ask youre his spokesperson. And im speaking about it right now. But youre backing off of it. Youre backing off of it. How am i backing off