President Donald Trump said that he felt “somewhat” vindicated in his unsubstantiated wiretapping claims after hearing from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), who claimed Wednesday that Trump and members of his transition team had been “incidentally” surveilled.
“Do you feel vindicated by Chairman Nunes?” a reporter asked the President.
“I somewhat do. I must tell you, I somewhat do. I very much appreciated the fact that they found what they found, but I somewhat do,” Trump responded.
… @realdonaldtrump on @devinnunes comments about “incidental surveillance”: “somewhat” vindicated. pic.twitter.com/Ncr09C5NSX
— fake nick ramsey (@nick_ramsey) March 22, 2017
Trump claimed without evidence on March 4 that President Obama had personally ordered wiretapping at Trump Tower. Trump also claimed that it was illegal. Recently, the White House has pointed to media reports about wiretapping and surveillance generally to support Trump’s claim, though the reports have not substantiated the accusation.
Nunes claimed Wednesday that Trump and members of his transition team had been “incidentally” surveilled, meaning they were not the actual targets of the surveillance. He did not say that Obama ordered the surveillance, as Trump claimed, and he stated multiple times that the surveillance had been legal.
FBI Director James Comey said Monday that he had seen no information to support Trump’s tweets.
