Rick Ledgett, a high-ranking official at the National Security Agency, denied a recent claim that British intelligence were responsible for surveilling President Trump.
In an interview with the BBC published Saturday, the NSA deputy director said the claim, made recently by a Fox News commentator who cited three anonymous sources, was “arrant nonsense” and that the British would not have engaged in wiretapping Trump on behalf of the Obama administration during the 2016 campaign.
“Of course they wouldn’t do it,” Ledgett said. “It would be epically stupid.”
The Fox commentator, Andrew Napolitano, had attempted to bolster Trump’s own previous and unfounded claim that the Obama administration had wiretapped him when he was transitioning into the White House.
“He used GCHQ. What is that? It’s the initials for the British intelligence-finding agency,” Napolitano said. “So, simply by having two people saying to them president needs transcripts of conversations involving candidate Trump’s conversations, involving President-elect Trump, he’s able to get it and there’s no American fingerprints on this.”
As recently as Friday, Trump stuck to his claim that Trump Tower had been wiretapped. He joked, during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that, “As far as wiretapping, at least we have something in common, perhaps.”
Shepard Smith, a daytime Fox anchor, also disputed Napolitano’s claim. “Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary,” he said on air Friday. “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-president of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way. Full stop.”
