A spokesman for the House Intelligence Committee has asked the Justice Department to provide any evidence of the president’s wiretapping claims before a March 20 hearing.
A spokesman for the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee has asked the Justice Department to provide any evidence of the president’s wiretapping claims before a March 20 hearing, and warned it could use a « compulsory process » if it doesn’t get answers.
House Intelligence Committee Republicans spokesman Jack Langer made the statement Monday after the Justice Department asked for more time « to determine what if any responsive documents may exist. »
House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and the committee’s ranking Democrat, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in a letter last week asked the Justice Department to turn over by Monday any evidence showing Trump Tower was wiretapped during the 2016 presidential race. A hearing is scheduled for March 20.
« If the committee does not receive a response by then, the Committee will ask for this information during the March 20 hearing and may resort to a compulsory process if our questions continue to go unanswered, » Langer said in a statement.
President Donald Trump made the explosive claim that « Obama had my « wires tapped » in Trump Tower just before the victory » via Twitter on March 4.
Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for Obama, has said « neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U. S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false. »
Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, on NBC’s « Meet the Press » Sunday said that under the part of the national security apparatus that he oversaw « there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign. »
Earlier Monday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said he hadn’t heard back from the FBI about Trump’s allegations. Graham and his Judiciary Committee colleague, Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, in a letter last week asked the FBI for information.
« I’m getting very ill-tempered over this, » Graham said.
Graham said he planned to give FBI Director James Comey more time, though he urged him to get in touch before talking to the intelligence committee.
« If I were the FBI Director, who I like, I would respond to my letter … before I publicly testify because you’ll run afoul of the Judiciary Committee. »
Earlier Monday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that the president « used the word wiretap in quotes, to mean broadly, surveillance, and other activities. »
« He doesn’t really think that president went up and tapped his phones personally, » Spicer said.
On NBC’s « TODAY, » White House counselor Kellyanne Conway declined to comment on the issue, citing the House Intelligence Committee investigation, though in an appearance on ABC’s « Good Morning America » she had « no evidence » to prove the claim.
In an interview on Sunday, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, implored Trump to show his cards.
« The president has one of two choices — either retract or provide the information that the American people deserve, » McCain said in an interview on CNN’s « State of the Union. » « I have no reason to believe that the charge is true, but I also believe that the president of the United States could clear this up in a minute. »
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