Story Continued Below 
 
 Key lawmakers in both parties say they will demand that the FBI director clear up, once and for all, Trump’s explosive claim that President Barack Obama ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower in the run-up to the election, according to interviews with more than a half-dozen members of the intelligence panel. “If he publicly refutes it, I think that it sends a message to the president that he can’t make baseless accusations without being called on it,” said Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017 
 
 In one sense, the strange controversy over Trump's tweets has left the President in a position where he is most comfortable politically — at odds with the media and the political and intelligence establishment in Washington. The president wrote that he “just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory,” likening Obama’s actions to “McCarthyism” and calling the former president a “bad (or sick) guy.” 
 
 Since then, the White House has sought to recast Trump’s remarks, saying they weren't meant to be taken literally and should be interpreted as a broad reference to any surveillance of Trump or his campaign aides. Rep. Devin Nunes, who chairs the intelligence panel, said Friday that while the president's claim was wrong that Trump Tower was wiretapped, it's clear that some Trump associates were at least under inadvertent surveillance. The California Republican pointed to former national security adviser Michael Flynn, whose phone calls with Russia’s ambassador were intercepted by the U.S. government and led to his firing last month. Also Friday, Trump's Justice Department sent classified information to Capitol Hill about the claims, but sources said it did not substantiate them. The hearing begins at 10 a.m. and is scheduled to last three hours. “The one crime we know that’s been committed is that one: the leaking of someone’s name,” Nunes said. Senator Susan Collins, a Republican, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I do believe he owes us that explanation.” 
 
 Collins said she supported Trump as president, but she wouldn’t side with him if he “misstated what the facts are.” 
 
 FBI Director James Comey is expected to be asked about Trump’s claims when he testifies at a rare public hearing on Monday about alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The committee is holding another public hearing on March 28 with members of the Obama administration, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who was fired by Trump in January after refusing to defend his first travel ban executive order in court. The Senate Intelligence Committee is also investigating Russia’s election meddling and has scheduled a public hearing for March 30. Looking at links between Trump campaign and Moscow 
 
 Some Democrats believe that Trump's perpetuation of the wiretapping claims represents an effort to distract from allegations that his campaign had inappropriate contacts with Russian officials.
– FBI Director James Comey testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Monday and there may be some angry tweets from the White House soon afterward: Comey is widely expected to tell lawmakers that there is no evidence to support President Trump's claim that former President Obama had him wiretapped, CNN reports. Rep. Devin Nunes, the committee's GOP chairman, said Sunday that documents received from the Justice Department on Friday indicated there was no wiretapping, the Washington Post reports. "Was there a physical wiretap of Trump Tower? No, but there never was, and the information we got on Friday continues to lead us in that direction," he told Fox. Nunes also called for an investigation of leaks to the news media, reports Reuters. The hearing, scheduled from 10am to 1pm, will focus on allegations of Russian interference in last year's election, and Nunes say he has seen no evidence of collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign. Comey is expected to be asked to confirm or deny the existence of Russia-related criminal investigations of Trump or his staffers, reports Politico, which notes that he might decline to comment to avoid jeopardizing active investigations, a move that would bring accusations of hypocrisy from Democrats still angry about Comey's decision to release information on the Hillary Clinton email investigation days before the election.