House Intel Leaders Agree ‘No Evidence’ For Trump Wiretap Claims

Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Devin Nunes, R-Calif., joined at left by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking member talk to reporters about their investigation Russian influence on the American presidential election, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March, 15, 2017.  Both lawmakers said thy have no evidence to back up President Trump's claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Plaza during the 2016 campaign.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Devin Nunes, R-Calif., joined at left by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking member talk to reporters about their investigation Russian influence o... Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Devin Nunes, R-Calif., joined at left by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking member talk to reporters about their investigation Russian influence on the American presidential election, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March, 15, 2017. Both lawmakers said thy have no evidence to back up President Trump's claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Plaza during the 2016 campaign. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) MORE LESS
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There is still “no evidence” to back up President Donald Trump’s claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the election, leaders on the House Intelligence Committee said in a joint press conference Wednesday.

Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) and ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) shared that assessment.

“We don’t have any evidence that that took place,” Nunes said at the start of the presser. “I don’t think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower.”

Schiff followed up, saying the committee has seen “no basis for that whatsoever” and that it “deeply concerns me that the President would make such an accusation without basis.”

Both said they were eagerly anticipating a response from acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente, who they asked last week to provide any evidence that may back up Trump’s allegations by March 20.

The President claimed on Twitter that Obama had his “wires tapped” ahead of the November election, even though the President cannot order the FBI to spy on a U.S. citizen without that agency obtaining a warrant to do so.

Nunes, a Trump ally, said last week that reporters shouldn’t always take the President’s comments “literally.”

Schiff and Nunes said they were willing to subpoena the information requested in the letter if Boente does not provide it to them by Monday, when the committee holds its first open hearing on Russian interference in the election.

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Notable Replies

  1. Settled. On to Russia collusion…

  2. Well, I, for one, am completely SHOCKED and GOBSMACKED by this revelation!!!

    What will the next shocker be? Leaked own tax returns? Lied about health care?? OMIGOD, my head hurts!

    /snark mode off

  3. So the so-called President accused his predecessor of having committed a Watergate-level megaton crime… with no fuckin’ evidence.

    And he’s getting away with it with no consequence? It’s HE who committed a crime with those fuckin’ tweets dammit!

  4. Avatar for win win says:

    Obama never had any wiretapped audio but Putin has some great video of Trump in a Moscow hotel room.

  5. Why is it so hard for the press–any press–to call him a liar?

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