Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Wednesday afternoon that FBI Director James Comey has yet to get back to him about whether there is any evidence to support President Trump’s claims that he was wiretapped or there was some type of surveillance of his computers or phones during the campaign.
“As of right now, no. But I hope he will do so soon,” Graham said in response to reporters questions about whether he has heard from Comey. Earlier Wednesday, Graham threatened Comey to subpoena the FBI for the information if it’s not forthcoming soon.
“The House intelligence people suggested there is no evidence of wiretapping. I think they are doing a good job over there, but I didn’t write the letter to them, I wrote the letter to the [Justice Department] and the FBI,” he said.
Comey is scheduled to brief some senators on classified intelligence matters Wednesday afternoon, including Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
But Graham said he is not part of the group Comey is briefing.
Grassley has threatened to hold up the otherwise non-controversial nomination of Rod Rosenstein, a longtime U.S. attorney for Maryland, to become deputy attorney general if the FBI is not forthcoming with the information about whether or not there is evidence of Trump Tower surveillance of any kind.
At a hearing of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee that Graham chairs, Graham thanked Grassley for strongly supporting an investigation he launched last month with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., into Russia’s possible ties to the Trump campaign.
“We’re going to get an answer to whether or not the Trump campaign was surveilled, and I hope to be able to answer the question [whether] there is an active investigation on the criminal side,” Graham said at the beginning of the hearing.
“I don’t know how we get there … but we have a ranking member and a chairman who supports us,” Graham said.
