Intelligence chief: no evidence of Donald Trump wire tap claims

Republican head of House Intelligence Committee says he’s seen no evidence to support the President’s wire-tapping claims.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R), and with Democrat Adam Schiff speak to the media Donald Trump’s wire-tapping claims. Picture: AFP.

Donald Trump’s wiretap claims against Barack Obama have suffered a fresh blow with the Republican head of the House Intelligence Committee rebuking the president’s claim.

Devin Nunes said he does not believe the president’s claim that Trump Tower was wiretapped, saying he had seen no evidence to support it.

“I don’t believe Trump Tower was tapped,” Mr Nunes told reporters Wednesday.

“We don’t have any evidence that that took place and, in fact, I don’t believe — just in the last week of time, the people we’ve talked to — I don’t think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower.”

But Mr Nunes did say it was possible that some Trump communications could have been gathered in ‘incidental’ intelligence collection.

The previous day, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that the president remained “extremely confident” that the Justice Department will find evidence to support his claim and “vindicated him.”

Mr Trump caused a furore last week when he claimed his predecessor Mr Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower during the election campaign, an act that would be illegal.

Both Republicans and Democrats have distanced themselves from the claim and the former Director of National Security James Clapper has denied that it occurred.

FBI chief James Comes has also told the Justice Department that the wire-tapping did not occur.

Mr Spicer this week seemed to walk away from the wiretap claim, saying the president was speaking more broadly about; surveillance’ during the campaign.

“I think there’s significant reporting about surveillance techniques that existed throughout the 2016 election,” Spicer said.