WASHINGTON ��Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Sunday there was no wiretapping of Donald Trump or his campaign by the Obama administration, as Trump claimed Saturday, and no court order allowing it.
Trump provided no evidence to support his claim.
"I can deny it," Clapper said on NBC's "Meet the Press" when asked whether he could confirm or deny a court order allowing for eavesdropping at Trump Tower in New York.
Clapper's comments contradicted contentions made by Trump in on Twitter that President Barack Obama had the Republican's "wires tapped in Trump Tower just before" the 2016 presidential election.
Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, said the White House was attempting to deflect focus from investigations into possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.
"Rather than Russia, we're talking about, did President Obama do thus and so," Pelosi said on CNN's "State of the Union."
"It's called a wrap-up smear," Pelosi said of the wiretapping claims. "You make up something. Then you have the press write about it. And then you say, everybody is writing about this charge. It's a tool of an authoritarian."
In a statement Sunday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump "is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016."
Neither the White House nor the president will comment further "until such oversight is conducted," Spicer said.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday" that the matter will be part of the ongoing inquiry. Asked whether he's seen any evidence that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump or anyone else in Trump Tower during the campaign, Cotton said, "I've seen no evidence of the allegations we've seen in the media."
����
(Brendan Greeley contributed to this report.)
