The Hill: Overnight Cybersecurity: Trump standing by wiretapping claim

The following article was published on March 16, 2017. A link to the article can be found here.

By Joe Uchill

JUST WHEN WE'RE ALL ON THE SAME PAGE...: On Wednesday, House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes reiterated that there is no evidence that then-President Obama wiretapped then-nominee Donald Trump's phones. On Thursday, Paul Ryan joined in. "The intelligence committees, in their continuing, widening, ongoing investigations of all things Russia, got to the bottom -- at least so far with respect to our intelligence community -- that no such wiretap existed," Ryan said during a news conference." He was soon followed by a joint statement from the Senate Intelligence Commiteee leadership. "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," wrote Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.). Also Thursday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) confirmed he expected FBI Director James Comey to debunk the wiretap claims during their hearing Monday.

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--...WE'RE STILL NOT ALL ON THE SAME PAGE: White House press secretary Sean Spicer, though, again argued at his Thursday press briefing that the president did not mean wiretapping when he tweeted four times that former President Barack Obama had ordered the wiretapping of Trump Towers. In two tweets, Trump had put the phrase in quotes: "Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!" and "Is it legal for a sitting President to be 'wire tapping' a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!" But Spicer said that indicated the president meant any kind of surveillance, not just wiretapping. He then recited a list of news articles that said Trump officials might have been caught in the surveillance of foreign targets. Nunes made a similar point during his press conference, that Trump was only inaccurate if his tweets are taken literally and that he may have been making a broader point. This explanation does not completely explain the tweets. So-called incidental surveillance can not legally be targeted at U.S. persons, like Trump, and is never directed by the president. It is solely in the hands of the intelligence community. Incidental surveillance may explain why wiretapping was in quotes, but not why Obama is explicitly being blamed.

--HOUSE COULD DEMAND DOCUMENTS: Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, introduced a special resolution of inquiry on Thursday requesting that Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions give Congress any evidence to explain Trump's claim that his predecessor illegally ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower ahead of the presidential election. Such evidence would include "copies of any document, record, memo, correspondence, or other communication in their possessions, or any portion of any such communication" that relates to Trump's claims." As a member of the Intelligence Committee, I have seen absolutely no evidence that supports the president's claims," Quigley said on the House floor Thursday. "President Trump and the Department of Justice have a responsibility to completely clarify the President's statements on Twitter."

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