President Obama’s former press secretary said he didn’t know whether there was a wiretap at Trump Tower during the 2016 election, but he denied that Obama ordered one.
“The president of the U.S. doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally wiretap an American citizen,” said Josh Earnest on ABC’s “This Week.”
But Earnest couldn’t say whether there was a wiretap that was done by the Justice Department.
“I don’t know,” he said. “It is not because I am no longer in government. Even when I was in government I wasn’t briefed on an FBI criminal or counterintelligence investigation.”
Appearing on the same show, former George W. Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that there was most likely surveillance “and it was at the behest of the Justice Department.”
Mukasey based his theory on news reports and comments from Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who wanted to talk to intelligence agents investigating Trump.
President Trump accused Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower before the campaign, which the president denied he had any part of.
