The Speaker of the House, the ranking Democrat on the Intel committee as well as the committee’s chairman, have stated that they did not find any evidence to support President Trump’s statements that he was wiretapped last year by former President Obama.
During an interview, Senator Paul Ryan categorically stated these sentiments. He said, “We have not seen any evidence that there was a wiretap or a (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court order against Trump Tower or somebody in Trump Tower.”
Despite the lack of evidence, Senator Ryan said he would still continue to trust the President. However, the senator pointed out that the President’s credibility on statements would lower in the eyes of American citizens. This is as a result of the allegedly false accusations he made on the Obama administration concerning prying into his communications.
“I think the President’s going to be marked and judged by his record,” the senator said during the interview.
The meeting had been preceded by similar statements from Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr and ranking member Mark Warner. The two issues a statement on March 16th. The statement said, “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 White House continues to defend the President’s claims even after the results of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigations. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer read in a statement on Thursday a list of various intelligence agencies that were interested in President Trump’s activities. However, none of the information he cited supported President Trump’s claim.
Further, Spicer stated that the Intelligence Committee’s results were not final. Referring to the President on his accusation against Obama, Spencer said, “He stands by it.” He also explained to reporters at the press briefing that the committee had not yet gone through all the information the White House and Intelligence agencies provided for the investigation.
Additionally, GCHQ refuted a statement from the White House that said Obama had “used GCHQ” to obtain transcripts of Trump’s communications. The allegations had been brought to light by Fox News’ Judge Andrew Napolitano.
In line with these accusations, a spokesperson from GCHQ said, “Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wiretapping’ against the then President-elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.”
There are also expectations that FBI Director will reiterate similar sentiments in the coming week. When speaking to the press, ranking Democrat on the House Committee Adam Schiff said, “But again you can see the President trying to say, ‘Well I didn’t mean what I said or what I said could mean various different things’ — he was very specific in what he said. So we’ll ask the director to address that very specific allegation.”
When questioned about whether there is evidence of any surveillance on other members of President Trump’s administration, House Intelligence Chairman David Nunes said that only former national security adviser Michael Flynn had had his communications with a Russian ambassador had been leaked.
The evidence comes in the President’s recent retreats over his sentiments. On Wednesday, he said, “When I say wiretapping, those words were in quotes. That really covers — because wiretapping is pretty old-fashioned stuff — but that really covers surveillance and many other things. And nobody ever talks about the fact that it was in quotes, but that’s a very important thing.”
Investigations are continuing over the issue as the House Intelligence Committee seeks to confirm the allegations President Trump made as either true or false.
