Spicer denies apology to British government for wiretap claim

“President Trump got the wiretap question a short time ago”, Smith reported, “during the news conference with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel”.

At a Thursday press briefing, Spicer read out allegations originally made on Tuesday on Fox News by legal analyst Andrew Napolitano, that the United Kingdom intelligence agency GCHQ – the equivalent of the US National Security Agency – had spied on Trump. I read in, I think it was January 20, a New York Times article where they were talking about wiretapping.

“Fox News can not confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary”, Smith told viewers Friday afternoon.

The leaders of the intelligence committees were briefed last week behind closed doors by FBI Director James Comey, who is set to be asked on Monday to comment publicly on Trump’s claim during testimony before the House panel.

Hurd, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he has not yet seen the DOJ report that was sent to Congress on the wiretapping allegation, but was not surprised by its apparent contents.

This week, Napolitano, Fox News judicial analyst, claimed during an interview on the network that three intelligence sources confirmed to him that the Obama administration used GCHQ to spy on Trump so that there would be “no American fingerprints on this”.

Sources have told me that the British foreign surveillance service, the Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ, most likely provided Obama with transcripts of Trump’s calls. He did not elaborate on the details of the information.

He added: “He didn’t use the NSA (National Security Agency), he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the Federal Bureau of Investigation and he didn’t use the Department of Justice”. But Trump offered no evidence to back up the accusation.

“I just don’t want anybody jumping to any conclusion on any side of this, other than the fact that we know that Obama didn’t physically wiretap Trump Tower”, Nunes told CNN Friday.

“Is it legal for a sitting President to be “wire tapping” a race for president prior to an election?”

So, to recap, the president appears to have made an outlandish allegation against his predecessor, which his allies can’t defend, and which led the White House to create a minor global incident with one of our closest foreign allies. The normally secretive G.C.H.Q. issued a rare public statement denying Spicer’s claim and demanded an apology from the White House.

Despite his citation of Napolitano’s claims, Spicer denounced reporters for taking the president’s words too literally and suggested lawmakers were basing their assessments on incomplete information.

“Sean was pointing to the breadth of reporting, not endorsing any specific story”, the official said.