White House officials have reportedly apologized to their British counterparts after a White House spokesman cited claims on Thursday that British intelligence spied on President Trump at President Obama’s request.
The BBC reported that May’s spokesman said a report on Fox News that British spies helped Obama spy on Trump are “ridiculous and should have been ignored.” White House spokesman Sean Spicer cited that report during a briefing with reporters on Thursday.
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May said the White House pledged not to repeat those claims, according to the BBC. But the Telegraph went further, and said the White House has formally apologized for the incident.
The Telegraph, a British newspaper, quoted an intelligence source as saying national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster apologized for the remark to May’s national security adviser, while Spicer himself apologized through British Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch.
The White House did not acknowledge apologizing to British officials in a statement released Friday morning, but did acknowledge there was a discussion.
“Ambassador Kim Darroch and Sir Mark Lyall expressed their concerns to Sean Spicer and General McMaster. Mr. Spicer and General McMaster explained that Mr. Spicer was simply pointing to public reports, not endorsing any specific story,” the statement read.
The U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which is a British intelligence agency, also denied the report by calling it “nonsense” and “utterly ridiculous,” according to the BBC.
A Fox News personality reported that three sources told him Obama didn’t use American intelligence services to spy on Trump, but instead asked the British to do it through the GCHQ.
Spicer on Thursday repeated the Fox News claim to reporters while citing a long list of media reports about intelligence activities around the 2016 election. Spicer was attempting to defend Trump’s tweet that Obama ordered him to be spied on in Trump Tower during the campaign. The administration has presented no evidence to support that claim, but has said those reports warrant an investigation.
“Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wiretapping’ against the then president-elect are nonsense,” a spokesman for GCHQ told the BBC. “They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.”
