特朗普指控奧巴馬竊聽其電話

Donald Trump’s extraordinary and unsubstantiated accusation that Barack Obama ordered the tapping of his phones before the November election raises three possible scenarios, each of which have serious implications for his young presidency.

唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)在Twitter發文指責巴拉克?奧巴馬(Barack Obama)在去年11月大選前下令竊聽他的電話，這一未被證實的不同尋常的指控引發了三種可能情況，每種都會對他剛剛開始的總統任期產生重大影響。

The first is that Mr Obama illegally ordered surveillance on the Trump campaign. The second is that the FBI obtained a warrant for surveillance from a special intelligence court (Fisa), implying some level of evidence of contact between Trump associates and Russian officials. Either, according to Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican senator, would amount to “the biggest scandal since Watergate”. Mr Graham has vowed to ascertain the truth about what he described as “earth-shattering” charges.

第一種情況是，奧巴馬非法命令情報機構監聽特朗普競選團隊。第二種情況是美國聯邦調查局(FBI)獲得了《外國情報監視法》(Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act，簡稱Fisa)法庭的監聽令，這意味着有某種證據顯示特朗普的手下與俄羅斯官員之間有聯繫。南卡羅來納州共和黨參議員林塞?格雷厄姆(Lindsey Graham)表示，這兩種情況都會導致“‘水門事件’以來最大的醜聞”。格雷厄姆發誓要查明此事真相，他將此事中的指控描述爲“驚天動地”。

Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia politics expert, alluded to the third scenario — that Mr Trump was once again making up facts — saying: “Claiming Obama bugged him is an extremely serious charge. Trump needs to put up or shut up.”

弗尼吉亞大學(University of Virginia)政治問題專家拉里?薩巴托(Larry Sabato)暗示還有第三種情況，即特朗普再次捏造事實，他說：“宣稱奧巴馬竊聽他是極爲嚴重的指控，特朗普要麼拿出證據，要麼就閉嘴。”

Some Republicans have privately told associates that they are worried about Mr Trump’s state of mind. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. David Frum, former White House speech writer to George W Bush, tweeted that one possibility was “Trump is flipping into an outright personality breakdown in full public view”.

一些共和黨人私下對同事們表示，他們擔心特朗普的精神狀態。白宮沒有迴應記者置評的請求。曾在小布什(George W Bush)政府時期擔任白宮發言稿作者的戴維?弗拉姆(David Frum)在Twitter上發文稱，一個可能性是“特朗普在衆目睽睽之下的完全的人格崩潰”。

The White House said yesterday it would not comment on the claim until congressional committees investigating Russian interference in the election determined if “executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016”.

白宮昨日表示，不會就該指控置評，直至調查俄羅斯干預美國大選的國會委員會就“行政分支的調查權是否在2016年被濫用”得出結論。

Mr Trump’s allegations were challenged when James Clapper, who was director of national intelligence in the final years of the Obama administration, revealed that there had been no wiretap that involved the Trump campaign. But he told NBC News that he had seen no evidence during his tenure that the Trump campaign had colluded in some way with the Kremlin.

在奧巴馬政府時期後幾年擔任美國國家情報總監(DNI)的詹姆斯?克拉珀(James Clapper)披露稱，不存在涉及特朗普競選團隊的竊聽活動，這挑戰了特朗普的指控。但克拉珀向NBC新聞(NBC News)表示，他在任期間沒有發現特朗普競選團隊與克里姆林宮存在某種勾結的證據。

Some experts believe that Mr Trump was tweeting in response to a story that Breitbart News, a rightwing news website, ran on Friday about a conservative radio host who wanted Mr Trump to investigate Mr Obama’s “police state” tactics. It referred to older stories that claimed the FBI made two requests — one unsuccessful and another successful — to the Fisa court. Mr Trump appeared to refer to the issue when he tweeted: “Is it legal for a sitting President to be ‘wire tapping’ a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!”

一些專家認爲，特朗普在Twitter上發文是對右翼新聞網站Breitbart News上週五刊登的一篇關於一個保守派電臺主持人的報道的迴應，這名主持人希望特朗普調查奧巴馬的“警察國家”手段。從該報道引用的較早的幾篇報道中可以看到，FBI曾兩次向Fisa法庭提出竊聽請求，其中一次沒有獲批，另一次則獲得批准。特朗普在Twitter上的這段話似乎就是指的這件事：“在任總統在選舉前‘竊聽’總統候選人的競選活動，這合法嗎？之前已經遭到過法庭的拒絕。又刷新了下限！”

As Mr Trump continues to attack anyone who raises questions about his team and their potential ties with Russia, one key question is whether Democrats and Republicans will unite in calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the relationship between the president and his campaign officials and the Kremlin.

在特朗普持續攻擊質疑其團隊以及他們與俄羅斯潛在關係的人士之際，一個關鍵問題是，民主黨和共和黨是否會聯合呼籲任命一位特別檢察官，調查特朗普及其競選官員與克里姆林宮的關係。

While Democrats are using the issue to hammer Mr Trump, Republicans are worried that the Russia scandal — and the president’s related comments on Twitter — are hampering their efforts to push through their legislative agenda.

在民主黨利用這個問題打擊特朗普之際，共和黨人擔心，俄羅斯醜聞（以及特朗普在Twitter上的相關評論）妨礙他們推進立法議程的努力。

Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican senator who has been a Trump critic, described the situation as a “civilisation-warping crisis of public trust”. He said the president needed to explain the background to his allegations. “If there were wiretaps?.?.?.? then it was either with Fisa court authorisation or without such authorisation,” said Mr Sasse. “If without, the president should explain what sort of wiretap it was and how he knows this. If it was with a legal Fisa court order, then an application for surveillance exists that the court found credible.”

內布拉斯加州共和黨參議員本?薩斯(Ben Sasse)是特朗普的批評者，他將這種局面描述爲“扭曲文明的公共信任危機”。他說，特朗普需要解釋他的指控的背景。薩斯表示：“如果有竊聽行爲……那麼這種行爲要麼有Fisa法庭的授權，要麼沒有。如果沒有，特朗普應該解釋它是何種竊聽行爲，以及他如何知道的。如果是Fisa法庭授權的合法行爲，那麼應該有該法庭認爲有說服力的監聽申請。”

Many national security experts said it was unlikely that Mr Obama would have requested a Fisa warrant, and that any such move would have provoked a backlash against political interference by law enforcement officials.

許多國家安全專家表示，奧巴馬不太可能向Fisa申請監聽令，此類行爲將會引發執法部門官員對政治干預的反彈。

“Theoretically it’s possible for a president to pressure the FBI and Justice Department to request a warrant, but Fisa was designed in the first place to check this sort of abuse,” said Matthew Waxman, a national security law expert at Columbia University. “Trump’s allegations probably say more about his own beliefs about a president’s powers than anything that really happened.”

哥倫比亞大學(Columbia University)國家安全法律專家馬修?韋克斯曼(Matthew Waxman)表示：“從理論上來說，總統可能會迫使FBI和司法部申請監聽令，但最初成立Fisa的目的就是防止這種不當行爲。特朗普的指控可能更多地說明了他自己對總統權力的看法，而不是真正發生的事情。”

Mieke Ouyang, a national security expert at the Third Way think-tank, said the tweets showed Mr Trump did not understand the Fisa process, including that requests were made by law enforcement officials and not the White House.

智庫Third Way的國家安全專家麥基?歐陽(Mieke Ouyang)表示，推文顯示出特朗普不明白Fisa的做事流程，包括申請是由執法部門官員、而非白宮提出的。

“If there’s a wiretap, the FBI and a judge thought there was something to it,” she said. “If President Obama tried to order a wiretap without going through that process, there’s no way either law enforcement or the phone companies would comply.”

她說：“如果存在竊聽行爲，那一定是FBI和法官認爲有這種必要。如果奧巴馬總統試圖不經過這種流程下令竊聽，執法部門或電話公司不會聽從。”

Cindy Cohn, an expert on surveillance who runs the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for civil liberties, said the intelligence community had such powers that Mr Trump should not be immediately dismissed as completely off base. “It is a big problem for the country if Trump tweets this out and nobody knows [what’s true],” she said.

運營着公民自由保護團體“電子前沿基金會”(Electronic Frontier Foundation)的監聽專家辛迪?科恩(Cindy Cohn)表示，情報部門擁有如此大的權力，不能立刻說特朗普大錯特錯。她說：“如果特朗普在Twitter上曝光此事，而沒有人知道（真相是什麼），這對美國來說是很嚴重的問題。”