Trump ‘not tapped’
SURVEILLANCE: THERE’S NO SIGN OF ‘OBAMA’S WIRES’
But the White House says President stands by his claims.
The leaders of the US Senate Intelligence Committee issued a bipartisan statement on Thursday rejecting President Donald Trump’s assertion that the Obama administration tapped his phones during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The top Republican in Congress, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, added his voice to a growing chorus of lawmakers saying there was no sign of a wiretap.
In a testy briefing with reporters, White House spokesperson Sean Spicer forcefully defended the president, citing news reports of intelligence collection on possible contacts between Trump associates and Russia in the presidential campaign.
“There is no question that there were surveillance techniques used throughout this,” Spicer said.
The Republican president, without providing evidence, has accused his predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama, of wiretapping him near the end of the campaign. An Obama spokesperson said that was “simply false.”
“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,” Richard Burr, the Republican chairperson of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Senator Mark Warner, the committee’s Democratic vice chairperson, said in a statement.
Ryan also said there was no evidence of surveillance.
“The point is, the intelligence committees in their continuing, widening, ongoing investigation of all things Russia, got to the bottom – at least so far – with respect to our intelligence community that no such wiretap existed,” the House speaker told reporters.
Pressed at the White House briefing on whether Trump would back down from his accusations, Spicer said: “He stands by it.”
Spicer also chastised the media for focusing so much attention on comments disparaging Trump’s claim about surveillance. He said reporters had not focused enough on comments from officials denying evidence of any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. The Russian government has rejected an accusation by US intelligence agencies that it worked to influence the election in Trump’s favor by hacking computer systems.
Trump has been dogged by allegations that his associates had ties to Russian officials. Trump fired his security adviser, Michael Flynn, last month after he failed to disclose contacts with Russia’s ambassador before Trump took office on January 20. – Reuters