No wiretapping evidence likely, panel’s leaders say

WASHINGTON — The leading members of the House Intelligence Committee haven’t seen and don’t expect to see any evidence backing up President Donald Trump’s allegations that Trump Tower was wiretapped during last year’s presidential campaign.

With the committee scheduled to take its first public testimony Monday in its investigation of Russian meddling in the election, the committee’s Republican chairman and its senior Democrat voiced agreement Wednesday that no evidence is likely to emerge of Trump’s allegations that President Barack Obama had ordered the tapping of Trump’s phones.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he’s asked the FBI to confirm or deny that there’s an active investigation into allegations that the Trump campaign worked with Russia and to detail if any U.S. court had been asked to issue a warrant to surveil communications at Trump Tower. Graham said the FBI told him those questions would be answered in a closed hearing.

Whether Trump was monitored has been an issue since March 4 when the president, in a series of tweets, accused Obama of wiretapping him in the waning days of the campaign. The House committee agreed to add the allegations to its investigation of Russian meddling in last year’s election and asked the Justice Department to provide any evidence bolstering Trump’s claim by March 13. That deadline was later moved to next Monday.

“We don’t expect to find that there was any substance to the allegations,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, a Californian who is the senior Democrat on the House intelligence panel. Later, Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican and the committee’s chairman, shook his head and laughed when asked about the president’s tweeted accusations.

“I think the president tweeting is a good thing,” Nunes said. Then he added: “There’s a fine line between having too many people monitoring what he’s saying, and no one monitor what he’s saying. … It would be helpful if they could be a little more focused.

“I don’t think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower,” said Nunes, adding that if Trump’s Twitter claim is to be taken literally, “then clearly the president is wrong.”

But Trump appears to be standing by his wiretapping tweet.

Speaking Wednesday night on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Trump said that “wiretap covers a lot of different things.”

Expect “some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next 2 weeks,” Trump said.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer also weighed in. “The president feels very comfortable there is information out there on surveillance,” Spicer said, saying the president’s concerns were not limited to actual wiretaps, but to the monitoring of communications in general.