Comey: FBI has no evidence to support Trump’s wiretap claim

FBI Director James Comey on Monday said he has no information that would support President Trump’s claims that former President Obama wiretapped the Trump Tower during the 2016 election.

“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,” Comey told the House Intelligence Committee.

“And we have looked carefully inside the FBI. The Department of Justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the Department of Justice and all its components: the department has no information that supports those tweets,” he said.

On March 4, Trump sent out a series of texts claiming Obama ordered surveillance of the Fifth Avenue skyscraper.

“Terrrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump wrote.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the committee, asked whether Obama could have authorized surveillance of Trump Tower during the election.

Comey replied: “No president could.”

At the start of the hearing, Rep. Devin Nunes, the chair of the committee, questioned whether other means of monitoring may have been used.

“Let me be clear: we know there was not a wiretap on Trump Tower, it’s still possible that other surveillance activities were used against President Trump and his associates,” Nunes said in a statement opening the hearing on Monday.