WASHINGTON (AP) — The House intelligence committee asked the executive branch to provide by Monday any evidence to support President Donald Trump’s claim that his phones were tapped at Trump Tower during the election, a senior congressional aide said Saturday.
The request was made in a letter sent by committee chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and the panel’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., according to the aide, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the request by name and requested anonymity.
In a tweet last weekend, Trump accused his predecessor, Barack Obama, of ordering the tap. Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has said that nothing matching Trump’s claims had taken place, but that has not quelled speculation that Trump’s communications were monitored by the Obama administration. Trump has not provided evidence to support his claim and has asked Congress to investigate.
Early this week, Schiff said the committee would answer the president’s call to investigate the claim. He also said that he would ask FBI Director James Comey directly when he appears later this month before the full committee, which is investigating Russian activities during the election.
“We should be able to determine in fairly short order whether this allegation is true or false,” Schiff told reporters Tuesday evening at the Capitol.
Nunes has said that so far he has not seen any evidence to back up Trump’s claim and has suggested the news media were taking the president’s weekend tweets too literally.
“The president is a neophyte to politics — he’s been doing this a little over a year,” Nunes told reporters earlier this week.
Other lawmakers have asked for similar evidence.
Declaring that Congress “must get to the bottom” of Trump’s claim, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., asked Comey and Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente to produce the paper trail created when the Justice Department’s criminal division secures warrants for wiretaps.
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If Schiff wants it, I like where this is headed.
Teeny tiny baby steps. First we get Repugs on record having supported some kind of investigation into something not Hillary.
Oh my, a conditional response to Trump. We will (only) investigate, IF you give us evidence first. From a GOPer, no less. From a GOPer who has already shown that he is comfortable being a Trump water-carrier.
Donald Trump is a non-politician neophyte who clearly doesn’t understand that what a president says has no impact. You could say that about a three year old to justify something they do. But we don’t give three year olds constitutional authority to command a huge war machine or absolute access to the nuclear codes. He already has Assad calling more troops in Syria a violation of Syrian authority. You think the equally childish leader of North Korea would react to a Trump threat with, “Oh, that Donny, there he goes again. Give his neophyte statements no mind”? Trump’s like any immature, overblown bully, itchin’ for a fight to prove himself. If the consequences weren’t so potentially dire it could be another Alec Baldwin laugher…
…and somehow we’re not supposed to be concerned that all three branches of government are in collusion to hide any evidence of wrong doing from their side while inflating SOMETHING SOMEWHERE THAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED but they can’t find any evidence but hey…