White House press secretary Sean Spicer continued Monday to defend President Donald Trump’s claims that Trump’s predecessor ordered surveillance of Trump Tower during the presidential election campaign, even as FBI Director James Comey testified to Congress that there is “no information” supporting that claim.
“We are still at the beginning phase of a look as to what kind of surveillance took place and why,” Spicer told reporters at his daily briefing at the White House.
Spicer argued that Trump critics have focused too narrowly on the president’s use of the term “wiretapping” when he first leveled his explosive charge against former president Barack Obama on Twitter more than two weeks ago.
“I think there’s continuing to be a very, very literal interpretation of his tweet, which is whether or not there was wiretapping,” Spicer said. “The president understands that you don’t literally wiretap people the same way you did in the ’70s and ’80s with wires and things in the top of the phone.”
Asked whether Trump maintains confidence in Comey, Spicer said: “There’s no reason to believe he doesn’t at this time.”
Spicer also sought to downplay testimony by Comey that there is an ongoing counterintelligence investigation into the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election and that the probe extends to the nature of any links between Trump campaign associates and the Russian government.
Spicer stressed that an ongoing investigation into possible collusion between Russians and the Trump campaign doesn’t mean that there was any. And he said that several people who have been briefed by the FBI have publicly said they’ve seen no evidence of collusion.
“Investigating it and having proof of it are two different things,” Spicer said. “I think it’s fine to look into it, but at the end of the day they’re going to come to the same conclusion that everybody else has had.”
(c) 2017, The Washington Post · John Wagner
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5 Responses
Wow! What a baldfaced liar.
One has to be a first-class LIAR AND CROOK to state even for 1 moment that there was no wiretapping when the NY Times publicly reported that officials received a transcript of the wiretapped conversation and leaking classified information. The report consisted of phone calls from Trump, including phone records, intercepted calls and said that NSA captured calls and then asked the FBI to collect as much information as possible.
BDE! President Trump just announced the death of Obamacare. Obamacare was gossessing for a while and now it’s b”h DEAD. MAZEL TOV!
Democrats Hoped to Hurt Trump, but Raised Suspicions of Obama
Obama silhouette Oval Office (Pete Souza / White House / Get
The mainstream media have been doing a victory lap since the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National Security Agency (NSA) confirmed on Monday in testimony before the U.S. House Intelligence Committee that President Barack Obama did not wiretap Trump Tower. But that was already known.
There was only one new revelation at the hearing, and it was a bombshell: senior Obama administration officials could have known the identities
One of those targets, retired General Michael Flynn, lost his job after it was revealed that his conversation with the Russian ambassador had been monitored, and that he had discussed sanctions relief, contrary to his early private an public claims.
Yet Flynn’s identity was never supposed to have been revealed. The surveillance of the Russian ambassador, routine though it may have been, yielded classified information, and the identity of any U.S. citizen swept up in it should have been redacted.
GOWDY: Do you know whether Director [of National Intelligence] James Clapper knew the name of the U.S. citizen that appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post?
COMEY: I can’t say in this forum because again, I don’t wanna confirm that there was classified information in the newspaper.
GOWDY: Would he have access to an unmasked name?
COMEY: In — in some circumstances, sure, he was the director of national intelligence. But I’m not talking about the particular.
GOWDY: Would Director [of the Central Intelligence Agency James] Brennan have access to an unmasked U.S. citizen’s name?
COMEY: In some circumstances, yes.
GOWDY: Would National Security Adviser Susan Rice have access to an unmasked U.S. citizen’s name?
COMEY: I think any — yes, in general, and any other national security adviser would, I think, as a matter of their ordinary course of their business.
GOWDY: Would former White House Advisor Ben Rhodes have access to an unmasked U.S. citizen’s name?
COMEY: I don’t know the answer to that.
GOWDY: Would former Attorney General Loretta Lynch have access to an unmasked U.S. citizen’s name? COMEY: In general, yes, as would any attorney general.
GOWDY: So that would also include Acting AG Sally Yates?
COMEY: Same answer.
GOWDY: Did you brief President Obama on — well, I’ll just ask you. Did you brief President Obama on any calls involving Michael Flynn?
COMEY: I’m not gonna get into either that particular case that matter, or any conversations I had with the president. So I can’t answer that.
Rep. Gowdy’s questioning revealed an astonishing list of potential suspects. And given that the FBI and NSA testified that there was still no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, the fact remains that the only crime that is known to have occurred with absolute certainty was the leaking of Flynn’s name and the contents of his conversation with the Russian ambassador.
Democrats hoped to hurt Trump. Instead, they raised more questions about Obama’s role.
He is either a teipesh gamur or simply acting like one on behalf of his boss. There was no issue until 5:30 AM Shabbos morning 3 weeks ago when some malach m’shamayim came to the Trumpkof and whispered in his ear that Obama had tapped him at Trump tower. The Trumpkpof immediately tweeted to the world that “I have just learned that Obama had me tapped…Gevalt!!! Then he demands Congress investigate what he just learned without telling them what evidence he had or which “malach” whispered in his ear. They investigate, and everyone who might have been involved says “NO, Herr Trumpkopf, neither Obama or anyone else had your offices or phones wiretapped or subject to other electronic monitoring…please tell us what you are talking about and where is your evidence”….”No says the Trumpkopf, go back and keep investigating and maybe something will show up to prove I’m not a liar”….