US Senate intelligence chiefs reject Trump's Obama wiretap assertion

The leaders of the US Senate Intelligence Committee issued a bipartisan statement on Thursday rejecting President Donald Trump's assertion that the Obama administration tapped his phones during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“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," the panel’s chairman, Richard Burr of North Carolina, and vice chairman, Mark Warner of Virginia, said in a joint statement Thursday.

Their counterparts on the House intelligence committee, the Republican Devin Nunes and the Democrat Adam Schiff, both of California, announced the same conclusion on Wednesday.

“We don’t have any evidence that took place,” Nunes said, a crucial Trump ally and member of his national security transition team, who nevertheless fanned the flames of Trump’s theory in a press conference.

“Are you going to take the tweets literally? And if you are, then clearly the president was wrong. But if you’re not going to take the tweets literally – and there is a concern that the president has about other people, other surveillance activities looking at him and his associates, either appropriately or inappropriately. We want to find that out,” Nunes said.

The top Republican in Congress, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, added his voice to a growing chorus of lawmakers saying there was no sign of a wiretap.

"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," the House speaker told reporters.

In a testy briefing with reporters, White House spokesman Sean Spicer forcefully defended the president, citing news reports of intelligence collection on possible contacts between Trump associates and Russia in the presidential campaign.

"There is no question that there were surveillance techniques used throughout this," Spicer said.

Trump initially said on 4 March in a series of tweets that his phones at Trump Tower were “wire tapped” by former President Barack Obama during the campaign, without providing evidence.

“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump tweeted.

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

Under existing surveillance law, the president of the United States does not have the power to order Americans surveilled. Security agencies seeking to conduct surveillance on Americans for counter-espionage or counter-terrorism purposes require a court order. Accordingly, Trump’s claim entailed an accusation that Obama and the security services had committed a felony.

An Obama spokesman said that was "simply false."

Asked Thursday if Trump stands by his claim, White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that “he stands by it” without further explanation.