Jeff Flake: Wiretapping of Trump Tower by Obama ‘just didn’t happen’
Mar 21, 2017, 5:31 AM | Updated: 3:16 pm
FILE - In this Nov. 17, 2016 file photo, security personnel stand at the front entrance of Trump Tower in New York. There is no indication that Trump Tower was "the subject of surveillance" by the U.S. government before or after the 2016 election, the top two members of the Senate intelligence committee said Thursday, March 16, 2017, directly contradicting President Donald Trump's claims."Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016," Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C. and Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a one-sentence joint statement Thursday afternoon. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
PHOENIX — Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Monday that he does not believe former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, the campaign headquarters of Donald Trump.
“In terms of wiretapping the president in Trump Tower by the former president, it just didn’t happen,” Flake told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Mac & Gaydos.
The alleged wiretapping began to garner headlines earlier this month when Trump made the claims on Twitter.
“How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” he tweeted, misspelling ‘tap.’
However, no evidence of the president’s claims has surfaced. Flake did not sound surprised to hear that news.
“I never believed it from the beginning,” he said. “It’s been confirmed by every intelligence arm that we have. That would have been a big, big deal had that happened and I was quite confident that it didn’t.”
On Monday, FBI Director James Comey publicly contradicted Trump’s claims for the first time.
“With respect to the president’s tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI,” Comey said. The same was true, he added, of the Justice Department.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
