Former Bush administration Attorney General Michael Mukasey was the one taking questions Monday from students at the Cole-Clark Boys and Girls Club in Hobe Sound. When the students finished, NewsChannel 5 asked Mukasey about President Donald Trump’s claims that Trump Tower was wiretapped last year.
“When the President was talking about feeling he had been wiretapped by his predecessor, he didn’t have that correct at all," said Mukasey.
But Mukasey says the larger point that there had been some communications intercepted during the election, may very well have been true.
“There may be validity in the sense that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court may have issued a warrant that authorized the gathering of some information that included information that was being provided by people who were around him at the time of the election," Mukasey added.
Mr. Mukasey also responded to President Trump’s decision to dismiss 46 US attorneys over the weekend, including Preet Bharara, a former student of Mukasey’s, despite Bharara insisting that Trump had initially asked him to stay on.
“I think that in part is a political dispute. The fact is, presidents can and do replace US attorneys who are appointed by the president," said Mukasey.
Mukasey, who was appointed to the Attorney General position in 2007, had no designs about staying on when Barack Obama took office in 2009.
"He had announced before he took office that he was going to appoint Eric Holder.”
Now working as a lawyer, Mukasey says the new Attorney General Jeff Sessions doesn’t need his advice, and says he’s well qualified for the office.