Trump's DOJ publicly embarrasses him during shameless hurricane victory lap

Donald Trump’s vapid and wholly unhelpful initial responses to Hurricane Harvey brought the sorely unpopular president yet another public relations mess of his own making.

And as he visits Houston and Louisiana attempting a do-over, his own Justice Department just dealt out another embarrassment for Trump.

The DoJ has made public its determination that Trump’s claim that President Barack Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower was a complete and total lie.

“Both FBI and NSD [the department’s National Security Division] confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets,” the filing read.

The filing was in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from American Oversight, an organization focused on government transparency — something on which Trump is decidedly not focused.

Former FBI Director James Comey had already dismissed Trump’s absurd accusations, telling the House Intelligence Committee back in March, “With respect to the president’s tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets.”

Now the DoJ has added further confirmation that Trump’s claim was utterly baseless.

It remains to be seen how he will respond to the filing once he’s stepped away from the crowds and cameras on his self-congratulatory trip to hurricane-devastated areas.

But this is his own Justice Department, run by his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions. Trump’s cries of “McCarthyism!” were laughable before; perhaps even he will see how thoroughly ludicrous a similar complaint would be now, since it would be his own administration he’d be attempting to slander.