Donald Trump on GCHQ wiretapping claims: I was quoting ‘legal mind’

Just a day earlier, House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes told a news conference there was no evidence.

Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said Thursday that the president stands by his allegation – made in a tweet sent March 4 – that President Barack Obama ordered surveillance of his phones at Trump Tower in NY during the campaign in autumn.

“As far as wiretapping, at least we have something in common, perhaps”, Trump quipped in the ornate East Room.

Trump on Friday repeated his charge that his predecessor Obama had ordered a wiretap against him, rejecting rising calls from Republicans and Democrats to withdraw the charge and apologize.

The U.S. military may deploy 1,000 more ground troops in Syria.

Faced with the rejection of Trump’s allegations by top legislators of both parties, White House spokesman Sean Spicer insisted Thursday the president “stands by” his belief.

Theresa May’s spokesman said this morning that the Government had raised objections directly with the U.S. administration.

The story in question was published on the paper’s front page on January 20 – the day Trump was inaugurated – under the headline, “Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides”.

It said “they are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored”.

After Spicer’s briefing on Thursday, the GCHQ issued a rare statement flatly dismissing the Fox pundit’s reporting.

Mr Trump was referring to U.S. media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano, who made the original accusation about GCHQ involvement on Wednesday.

Under the Five Eyes agreement between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the USA, allies can not use each others’ intelligence capabilities to circumvent their own laws, Slack said. Mr. Johnson said he was one of the sources for Mr. Napolitano’s claim about British intelligence.

“Trump is compromising the vital UK-US security relationship to try to cover his own embarrassment”, said the Lib Dem leader. Having congratulated each other for exposing Trump on an entirely trivial matter, journalists are now using Trump’s tweets to badger other Republicans, like UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. May was the first foreign leader to meet with Trump after his inauguration.

Mr. Trump said on Twitter two weeks ago that he had just learned that President Obama wiretapped his campaign headquarters at Trump Tower in NY past year.

It actually reports that law enforcement were examining intercepted communications between Russian officials and associates of President Trump, as part of a counterintelligence investigation against Russian interests interfering in the United States election.

Mr Spicer was referring to claims by a Fox News guest that the British security services had helped Barack Obama spy on Mr Trump when he was President-elect. Obama, he claimed, “went outside the chain of command” so there were “no American fingerprints on this”.

No such details have been forthcoming, and both Trump and the White House now say the president’s tweet was making the broader claim that he was subjected to surveillance prior to the election.

President Donald Trump told Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that last week’s optimistic jobs figures were “not really the numbers” and said the economy was recovering from a “very, very weak” position. Maybe I’ll do it before I see the results of the committee.

I think there’s no question that the Obama administration, that there were actions about surveillance and other activities that occurred in the 2016 election.