President
Donald Trump stands by his accusation that the Obama administration tapped his
phones during the 2016 presidential campaign, the White House said on
Thursday,
despite three senior lawmakers rejecting Trump's claim.
The Republican
and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a statement
they saw "no indications" of surveillance at Trump Tower in New York
as the president claimed in Twitter posts on March 4.
"Based on
the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the
subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either
before or after Election Day 2016," Republican Chairman Richard Burr and
Senator Mark Warner, the committee's Democratic vice chairman, said in a
statement.
The top
Republican in Congress, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, on Thursday
added his voice to those saying there was no sign of a wiretap.
But White
House spokesman Sean Spicer forcefully defended Trump's assertion during a
briefing, citing media reports that have discussed intelligence collection on
possible contacts between Trump associates and Russia in the campaign.
"There is
no question that there were surveillance techniques used throughout this,"
Spicer said.
When pressed
for further evidence, Spicer chastised the media for focusing so much attention
on comments disparaging Trump's claim about surveillance. He said reporters
have not focused enough on comments from officials denying evidence of any
collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
The Russian
government has rejected an accusation by U.S. intelligence agencies that it
worked to influence the election in Trump's favor by hacking computer systems,
among other methods.
House Speaker
Ryan told reporters: "The point is, the intelligence committees in their
continuing, widening, ongoing investigation of all things Russia, got to the
bottom - at least so far - with respect to our intelligence community that -
that no such wiretap existed."
An official
familiar with the investigations by Congress and intelligence and law
enforcement agencies said investigators have looked as aggressively and
thoroughly as they can for evidence of any spying on Trump or his associates
but have found none.
Trump, a
Republican, made the accusation six weeks after he took over the presidency
from Democrat Barack Obama.
Trump accused
Obama of wiretapping him during the late stages of the campaign, but provided
no evidence. Obama said through a spokesman that it was "simply
false."
"How low
has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election
process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!," Trump wrote.
At least four
congressional committees added the startling accusation in their investigations
of possible Russian meddling in the election campaign and Russian ties to Trump
and his associates.
On Wednesday,
House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a
Republican, and top Democrat Adam Schiff told reporters they had seen no
evidence that Trump Tower was tapped and said they would ask Federal Bureau of
Investigation Director James Comey about the issue during a public hearing on
Monday.
Ryan told
reporters he received the same intelligence briefing as Nunes and Schiff.
Trump appeared
to back away from his accusation of wiretapping in a Fox News interview on
Wednesday night.
"But
wiretap covers a lot of different things. I think you’re going to find some
very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks,"
Trump said.
*Reuters*
*Reuters*
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