What the #!%*? ‘Utterly ridiculous’

In this occasional feature, the National Post tells you everything you need to know about a topic of interest. Today: Did the British bug Trump Tower?

Q Who came up with the idea?

A Andrew Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court judge and a regular commentator for Fox News, told the news service that three intelligence sources had said Obama “went outside the chain of command” and used Britain’s GCHQ so “there’s no American fingerprints on this.”

Q And the White House believes this?

A Sure they do. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, recounted it to reporters on Thursday.

Q What do the British say?

A Well, they are furious because they say it’s not true. In fact, GCHQ, Britain’s eavesdropping agency, normally doesn’t say anything about anything. But this time they came out with guns blazing. “Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wire tapping’ against the then President Elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored,” GCHQ said in a statement.

Q Now what?

A The British complained to the White House and intelligence sources say Spicer and Lt.- Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, have apologized. And at a press briefing Friday, a spokesman for Theresa May, the British prime minister, said: "We have received assurances from the White House that these allegations would not be repeated.”

Q So was Trump Tower bugged?

A No evidence so far. The press secretary’s comments followed a statement from the ranking Republican and Democrat committee members who said they had seen no evidence to back up the Trump’s allegations that Obama had spied on him. “Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016,” said Richard Burr the chairman and top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.