Trump reaffirms Obama wiretap charge as Congress awaits evidence
President Trump doubled down on his allegations that the Obama administration wiretapped his offices during the 2016 presidential campaign, even as FBI Director James Comey is set to testify before a congressional panel on the matter on Monday.
“Wiretap covers a lot of different things,” Trump told Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson last night.
He added that he expects “some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks.”
The leaders of the House Intelligence Committee said at a press conference yesterday they still have no evidence to back up Trump’s claim that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the election.
The Justice Department, after being granted a oneweek extension earlier this week, now has until Monday to provide proof of the president’s assertions, which he laid out in a series of tweets nearly two weeks ago.
“We don’t have any evidence that that took place,” said U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “In fact, I don’t believe — in the last week ... people we’ve talked to — I don’t think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower.”
Nunes expects his committee would resort to subpoenaing the information if the DOJ does not comply.
Nunes added that Comey will testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Monday, when it kicks off its hearings into Russian meddling in the presidential campaign.
Top Republicans tried to crank up the heat on Comey, demanding he reveal whether his agency is investigating Trump’s ties to Russia as well as whether it issued warrants for wiretapping his campaign.
“Congress is going to flex its muscle, and you see that all over the place,” South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told NBC News.
“We’ll issue a subpoena to get the information. We’ll hold up the deputy attorney general’s nomination until Congress is provided with information to finally clear the air as to whether or not there was ever a warrant issued against the Trump campaign.”
Both Graham and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa threatened to block the nomination of Rod Rosenstein as deputy attorney general if he didn’t provide more details.
“Is there an investigation?” Graham added.
“Because I need to know before I move forward into investigating Russia from a congressional lens. I don’t want to interfere with a criminal investigation if there is one. I think the entire country needs to know whether there’s a there there,” he said.