House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes said Sunday he has still seen no evidence to show Trump Tower was wiretapped after reviewing information from the Department of Justice.
“Was there a physical wiretap of Trump Tower? No, there never was,” the California Republican told Fox News Sunday.
The Department of Justice said Friday it turned over information congressional committees sought on President Donald Trump’s claim that the Obama administration wiretapped him ahead of the 2016 election. Top lawmakers asked for any evidence of potential court orders or warrants related to Trump, his campaign surrogates, family or friends.
Nunes said he is not aware of a foreign intelligence surveillance warrant to monitor Trump. He said that “if you take the president literally, it didn’t happen.”
However, Nunes noted that he remains concerned about “other surveillance activities,” referencing the leaked communications related to former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
Flynn’s contradictions to White House officials about his calls with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S., led to his resignation.
Trump did not back down from the accusation on Friday, even after a series of rebukes from congressional leaders.
“On wiretapping by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps,” Trump said to German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a joint press conference. The National Security Agency allegedly monitored phone calls involving Merkel and her aides, straining relations with Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama.
Key senators said Thursday they did not have evidence to support Trump’s wiretapping accusation.
“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 statement by Republican Chairman Sen. Richard Burr and Sen. Mark Warner, the committee’s Democratic vice chairman, said.
The top Republican and Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday they did not have evidence to support the wiretapping accusation. GOP Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes said he did not “think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower.” However, he said, that only applies if Trump literally meant he was wiretapped.
The White House and its allies in recent days have attempted to change the interpretation of Trump’s explosive tweets from earlier this month. In four separate statements on Twitter, Trump said he was the target of a wiretap.
In two of those, Trump put quotes around the term, which White House Spokesperson Sean Spicer said means he may not have meant it literally. Still, in one of those tweets, Trump called it a “fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October.”
Spicer argued Thursday that Trump referred to “broad surveillance,” not a physical wiretap. He contended that reporters have focused too much on the president’s accusation, which he made without citing evidence, and not statements denying that Trump campaign officials had ties with Russian officials.
FBI Director James Comey may also answer about Trump’s accusations when he testifies at a public House Intelligence Committee hearing Monday. The hearing is related to the committee’s ongoing investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.