Sunday urged Congress to investigate Trump's allegation.
The New York
Times reported on Sunday that FBI Director James Comey asked the Justice
Department this weekend to reject Trump's wiretapping claim because it was
false and must be corrected, but the department had not done so. The report
cited senior U.S. officials.
The White
House asked Congress, controlled by Trump's fellow Republicans, to examine
whether the Obama administration abused its investigative authority during the
2016 U.S. presidential campaign, as part of an ongoing congressional probe into
Russia's influence on the election.
Trump on
Saturday alleged, without offering supporting evidence, that Obama ordered a
wiretap of the phones at Trump's campaign headquarters in Trump Tower in New
York.
"There
was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect at the time,
or as a candidate or against his campaign," former Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper, who left his post at the end of Obama's term in
office in January, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Under U.S.
law, a federal court would have to have found probable cause that the target of
the surveillance is an "agent of a foreign power" in order to approve
a warrant authorizing electronic surveillance of Trump Tower.
Asked whether
there was such a court order, Clapper said, "I can deny it."
Democrats
accused Trump of trying to distract from the rising controversy about possible
ties to Russia. His administration has come under pressure from FBI and
congressional investigations into contacts between members of his campaign team
and Russian officials.
Attorney
General Jeff Sessions bowed out last week of any probe into alleged Russian meddling
in the 2016 election after it emerged he met last year with Russia's ambassador
while serving as a Trump campaign advisor. Sessions maintained he did nothing
wrong by failing to disclose the meetings.
White House
spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump and administration officials would have no
further comment on the issue until Congress has completed its probe,
potentially heading off attempts to get Trump to explain his accusations.
"Reports
concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead
of the 2016 election are very troubling," Spicer said in a statement.
U.S.
Representative Devin Nunes, Republican head of the House of Representatives
Intelligence Committee examining possible links between Russia and Trump's
campaign, said in a statement that any possible surveillance on campaign
officials would be part of the probe.
Trump made the
wiretapping accusation in a series of early morning tweets on Saturday amid
expanding scrutiny of his campaign's ties to Russia. An Obama spokesman denied
the charge, saying it was "a cardinal rule" that no White House
official interfered with independent Justice Department investigations.
The White
House offered no evidence on Sunday to back up Trump's accusation and did not
say it was true.
Spokeswoman
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, appearing on ABC's "This Week," said Trump
has "made very clear what he believes, and he's asking that we get down to
the bottom of this. Let's get the truth here."
'EARLY STAGES
OF INVESTIGATION'
Trump, who is
spending the weekend at his Florida resort, said in his tweets on Saturday that
the alleged wiretapping took place in his Trump Tower office and apartment
building in New York, but there was "nothing found."
Senate
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Trump had either made a false
accusation, or a judge had found probable cause to authorize a wiretap.
"Either
way, the president's in trouble," Schumer said on NBC's "Meet the
Press," adding that if Trump was spreading misinformation, "it shows
this president doesn't know how to conduct himself."
Clapper said
"there was no evidence" of collusion between the Trump campaign and
Russia in a January intelligence report concluding Russian interference in the
2016 election, but "this could have unfolded or become available in the
time since I left government."
Trump's
allegations echo charges made in recent days by several conservative news and
commentary outlets, all without offering any evidence.
Trump should
immediately turn over any evidence he has to support his allegation, said U.S.
Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who serves on the Senate Intelligence
Committee.
"What we
need to deal with is evidence, not just statements," she said on CBS's
"Face the Nation," adding she also had not seen evidence of
collaboration "but we are in the very early stages of our
investigation."
Trump fired
his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in February after
revelations that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian
ambassador before Trump took office.
Josh Earnest,
the White House press secretary under Obama, said the president did not have
the authority to unilaterally order a wiretap of a U.S. citizen.
"The
president was not giving marching orders to the FBI about how to conduct its
investigation," Earnest said on ABC's "This Week."
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