WASHINGTON — The chairman and vice chair of the Senate intelligence committee said they have seen no evidence that Trump Tower was wiretapped before or after the 2016 election.
“Based on the information available to us, we see no indication that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016,” Senate Select Committee Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr and Vice Chairman Mark Warner said in a joint statement Thursday afternoon.
Members of the of the intelligence committees in the upper and lower chambers were briefed by FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday relating to information about surveillance of the Trump campaign and Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower on March 4 on Twitter.
When asked about his allegations by Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson Wednesday night, Trump replied, “Well, I’ve been reading about things. I read in, I think it was January 20 a New York Times article where they were talking about wiretapping. There was an article, I think they used that exact term. I read other things. I watched your friend Bret Baier the day previous where he was talking about certain very complex sets of things happening, and wiretapping. I said, wait a minute, there’s a lot of wiretapping being talked about. I’ve been seeing a lot of things.”
Trump added, “Now, for the most part, I’m not going to discuss it, because we have it before the committee and we will be submitting things before the committee very soon that hasn’t been submitted as of yet. But it’s potentially a very serious situation.”
The House and Senate Intelligence Committees continue to investigate Russian activity in the U.S. during the election. House Intel Committee Chair Devin Nunes announced Wednesday his committee wants to know who “unmasked” the name of Trump former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn as well as released it to the press, when surveillance was performed on the Russian Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak during a conversation with Flynn.