No indications Trump Tower was under surveillance – senators

The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee have said there's no evidence to support President Donald Trump’s claim 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," read a statement by Republican Chairman Richard Burr and Senator Mark Warner, the committee's Democratic vice chairman, according to AP.

In a series of early-morning tweets on March 4, President Trump accused President Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign, calling such an activity “McCarthyism” and “A NEW LOW!” Trump also called his predecessor a “bad (or sick) guy!”

An Obama spokesman denied the claims as “simply false.”
“As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen," Kevin Lewis said. "Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”

On March 5, the White House asked the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to “exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.”

The House Intelligence Committee also sought evidence of Trump’s wiretapping accusations. The Justice Department asked the committee for additional time to review the request.

The committee granted that request, giving the DOJ until Monday to submit evidence. Despite that allowance, Nunes and Schiff said Wednesday they didn’t think they would receive any proof.

"We don't have any evidence that that took place," Nunes said.
There is the possibility that someone in Trump’s campaign was swept up in an incidental collection by speaking with someone under surveillance, Chair Devin Nunes (R-California) said, but no one in the campaign was a target.

The AP reported the wiretap claim was made in a story in Breitbart which reprinted a claim by radio host Mark Levin who mentioned, without evidence, the idea that Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower.

An aide placed that piece in Trump's daily reading pile, said a White House official. Fueled by that report on Saturday, Trump unleashed a series of tweets accusing his predecessor of spying on him.

FBI Director James Comey is set to testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee on Monday where the wiretapping claim is likely to be brought up again.