Row with UK over Trump wiretap claim deepens
US President Donald Trump has defiantly refused to back down from his explosive claim that Barack Obama wiretapped his phones, and sidestepped any blame for the White House decision to highlight an unverified report that Britain helped to carry out the alleged surveillance.
In brushing off the diplomatic row with perhaps America’s closest ally, Trump also revived another: the Obama administration’s monitoring of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s calls.
‘‘At least we have something in common, perhaps,’’ Trump quipped during a joint news conference with Merkel yesterday.
Merkel, making her first visit to the White House since Trump took office, looked surprised by the president’s comment, which he appeared primed to deliver.
The Obama administration’s spying infuriated Germany at the time and risked damaging America’s relationship with one of its most important European partners.
Trump’s unproven recent allegations against his predecessor have left him increasingly isolated, with fellow Republican as well as Democratic lawmakers saying they have seen nothing from intelligence agencies to support his claim. But Trump has been unmoved, leaving his advisers in the untenable position of defending the president without any credible evidence.
On Friday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer turned to a Fox News analyst’s contention that British electronic intelligence agency the GCHQ had helped Obama wiretap Trump.
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith said yesterday the network could not independently verify the reports from Andrew Napolitano, a former judge and commentator who has met with Trump.
The GCHQ vigorously denied the charges in a rare public statement, saying the report was ‘‘utterly ridiculous and should be ignored’’.
According to a Western diplomat, Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Kim Darroch, told the White House this week that Napolitano’s assertions were not true. Still, it was among several news reports Spicer referenced as part of an angry defence of the president’s claims.
Darroch and other British officials complained directly to White House officials after the episode. Prime Minister Theresa May’s office said it had been assured that the White House REUTERS would not repeat the allegations.
Spicer was very apologetic when confronted by Darroch at a White House dinner on Friday, the Western diplomat said.
But Trump himself offered no public apologies yesterday, and suggested there was nothing wrong with the White House repeating what it had heard.
‘‘We said nothing. All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television,’’ he said.
‘‘I didn’t make an opinion on it – that was a statement made by a very talented lawyer on Fox, and so you shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox.’’
Spicer was also defiant, telling reporters: ‘‘I don’t think we regret anything.’’
A White House official confirmed that Darroch and May’s national security adviser, Mark Lyall Grant, had expressed their concerns to both Spicer and Trump’s national security adviser, H R McMaster. Spicer and McMaster replied that the press secretary was simply pointing to public reports and not endorsing any specific story, the official said. The diplomat and the White House official both spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was a story in Breitbart – the far-right website once run by Trump’s senior adviser Steve Bannon – that appeared to spark Trump’s March 4 tweets accusing Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower, the New York skyscraper where he lived and ran his presidential campaign.
The White House has asked the House and Senate intelligence committees to investigate the matter as part of their inquiries into Russia’s hacking of the presidential election and possible contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials. But the top lawmakers on both the House and Senate intelligence committees have said they have seen no indications that Trump Tower was wiretapped.
The US Justice Department said yesterday it had complied with congressional requests for information related to any surveillance during the 2016 election. It would not comment further on what was provided.
Republicans in Congress said Trump should retract his claims. Pennsylvania Representative Charlie Dent called the accusation against Britain ‘‘inexplicable’’ and Trump’s accusation against Obama unfounded.
‘ All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind . . . You shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox.’ DONALD TRUMP
AP