Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Sunday said President Trump’s claim that the Obama administration wiretapped his campaign’s phone conversations was false.
Clapper told NBC “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd: “There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect, at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign,” at least for the portion of the national security sector that he oversaw.
Clapper also said he had no knowledge of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to rig the election.
Clapper denied the Obama White House received a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order for the surveillance. He also said he was not aware of any request for one, but could not rule out that other agencies had not made one.
“I can’t speak for other authorized entities in the government or a state or local entity,” Clapper said.
Clapper said the Senate Intelligence Committee will look into allegations Trump made on Saturday that former President Barack Obama directed intelligence agencies to listen in to his campaign’s phone calls from their Trump Tower headquarters in Manhattan.
Former President Obama’s spokesman Kevin Lewis issued a statement on Saturday stating: “Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”
