TRUMP’S aides defend claims of wiretapping.
No knowledge of FBI chief’s denial, White House says
WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday refused to acknowledge reports that FBI Director James Comey had informed the Justice Department that President Donald Trump’s claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped him during the 2016 presidential campaign was false.
The White House also said Trump still believes he was spied on.
The New York Times first reported on Sunday that Comey had urged the Justice Department over the weekend to refute Trump’s claims, and other news organizations followed suit. But the department has not said anything publicly.
Sean Spicer, the White House spokesman, dismissed the stories Monday.
“I have not seen anything, aside from another report based on anonymous sources, that that actually happened,” Spicer said. “I’m not aware that that occurred. I don’t think that we’re aware that that occurred.”
At one point, Spicer pointed to comments by Michael Mukasey, who served as attorney general in the administration of George W. Bush, as evidence of the eavesdropping. Mukasey said on television Sunday that based on reports he had read in the press, he believed Trump was probably right about the surveillance.
“There’s no question that something happened,” Spicer said. “The question is: Is it surveillance, or wiretapping or whatever?”
Spicer said Trump still had confidence in the FBI director.
“There’s nothing that I have been told by him that would leave me to believe that anything is different than it was prior,” Spicer said.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House deputy spokesman, and Kellyanne Conway, a top Trump adviser, said on ABC’s Good Morning America that the president still firmly believes the allegations he made on Twitter Saturday morning. 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 said on 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, Sanders said the president “may have access to documents that I don’t know about.”
Likewise, Conway said “credible news sources” suggested that 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, R- Calif., 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.”
Trump said in the tweets that he had “just found out” about being wiretapped. Unclear was whether he was referring to having learned through a briefing, a conversation or a media report. The president in the past has tweeted about unsubstantiated reports he reads on blogs or conservative websites.
“How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/ Watergate. Bad ( or sick) guy!” he tweeted, misspelling “tap.”
A top congressional Republican said Monday that he has not seen any evidence to corroborate the claim.
“Thus far, I have not seen anything directly that would support what the president has said,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R- Utah, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in an interview on CBS News.
Chaffetz said it’s “premature” to conclude that there is “no backing evidence” to validate Trump’s allegation. Speaking to Fox News Channel, Chaffetz said Congress will take a look at the matter and argued, “the Obama administration’s been notorious on this type of stuff.”
But he also raised the possibility that Trump’s accusation may be baseless.
“I think he might have something there, but if not, we’re going to find out,” Chaffetz said to CBS.
Some Republicans defended the impartiality of the Justice Department and FBI.
“I don’t think the FBI is the Obama team, and I don’t think the men and women who are career prosecutors at DOJ belong to any team other than a blindfolded woman holding a set of scales,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, R- S. C., said in an interview on Fox News.
Separately, a former foreign policy adviser to Trump’s campaign said he was contacted by the Senate Intelligence Committee about its investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election.
In response to the committee, Carter Page said he will “provide any information” that may be of assistance to the committee. The committee has asked about a dozen individuals and organizations, including the White House, to preserve relevant materials.
Information for this article was contributed by Darlene Superville, Eric Tucker and Julie Pace of The Associated Press; by Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times; and by Sean Sullivan and Karoun Demirjian of The Washington Post.