No apology for claim of British espionage
WASHINGTON — President Trump refused to back down Friday after his White House aired an unverified claim that Britain’s spy agency secretly monitored him during last year’s campaign at the behest of former President Barack Obama.
Although his aides in private conversations since Thursday night had tried to calm British officials who were livid over the claim, Trump made clear that he felt the White House had nothing to retract or apologize for. He said his spokesman was simply repeating an assertion made by a Fox News commentator.
“We said nothing,” Trump told a German reporter who asked about the matter at a joint White House news conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel. “All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television. I didn’t make an opinion on it.” He added: “You shouldn’t be talking to me. You should be talking to Fox.”
Trump, who has stuck by his unsubstantiated assertion that Obama ordered his telephone tapped last year despite across-the-board denials, wryly used Merkel’s visit to repeat his contention. Merkel was angry during Obama’s administration at reports that the United States had tapped her cell phone and those of other foreign leaders. Turning to her, Trump said, “At least we have something in common, perhaps.”
After the news conference Spicer echoed Trump’s defiant tone. “I don’t think we regret anything,” he told reporters. “As the president said, I was just reading off media reports.”
Shortly afterward, Fox backed off the claim made by its commentator, Andrew Napolitano. “Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary,” the anchor Shepard Smith said on air. “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now president of the United States as surveilled at any time, any way. Full stop.”
A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain said Friday that the White House had backed off the allegation.