Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Aides lend support to Trump wiretap claim
They say president believes it, may have more details
WASHINGTON — White House officials on Monday defended President Donald Trump’s explosive claim that Barack Obama tapped Trump’s telephones during last year’s election, although they won’t say exactly where that information came from and left open the possibility that it isn’t true.
The comments came even after FBI Director James Comey privately asked the Justice Department to dispute the claim because he believed the allegations were false.
When asked whether Trump accepted Comey’s view, White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told ABC’s “Good Morning America”: “I don’t think he does.”
Sanders and Kellyanne Conway, another top adviser, said the president still firmly believes the allegations he made on Twitter over the weekend. The aides said any ambiguity surrounding the issue is all the more reason for Congress to investigate the matter.
“We’d like to know for sure,” Sanders told NBC’s “Today” show.
The House and Senate intelligence committees, and the FBI, are investigating contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials, as well as whether Moscow tried to influence the 2016 election. On Sunday, Trump demanded that they broaden the scope of their inquiries to include Obama’s potential abuse of executive powers.
When asked where Trump was getting his information from, Sanders said the president “may have access to documents that I don’t know about.”
Likewise, Conway said that “credible news sources” suggested there was politically motivated activity during the campaign. But Conway also said Trump might have access to other information she and others don’t.
“He is the president of the United States,” Conway told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.” “He has information and intelligence that the rest of us do not.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., said in a statement that the panel “will follow the evidence where it leads, and we will continue to be guided by the intelligence and facts as we compile our findings.”
Rep. Devin Nunes, RCalif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the committee “will make inquiries into whether the government was conducting surveillance activities on any political party’s campaign officials or surrogates.”
But former government lawyers say Trump hardly needs Congress to answer the question of whether he was the subject of surveillance by the U.S. government.
“The intelligence community works for the president, so if a president wanted to know whether surveillance had been conducted on a particular target, all he’d have to do is ask,” said Todd Hinnen, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division during the Obama administration and a National Security Council staff member under President George W. Bush.
The Justice Department, not the president, would have the authority to conduct such surveillance, and officials have not confirmed any such action. Through a spokesman, Obama said neither he nor any White House official had ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen.
Why turn to Congress, Trump spokesman Sean Spicer was asked Monday.
“My understanding is that the president directing the Department of Justice to do something with respect to an investigation that may or may not occur with evidence may be seen as trying to interfere,” Spicer said. “And I think that we’re trying to do this in the proper way.”
He indicated that Trump was responding to media reports rather than any word from the intelligence community.