Senate committee not investigating Trump wiretapping claims yet
The Senate Intelligence Committee is not currently investigating the veracity of allegations made by President Trump that former President Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“We’re going to go anywhere there’s intelligence or facts that send us,” Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) told reporters on Tuesday afternoon. He added, “We don’t have anything today that would send us in that direction.”
However Burr left open the possibility of looking into the matter if evidence supporting the claim surfaces saying, “that’s not to say we might not find something.”
The White House renewed its call on Tuesday for the Congressional intelligence committees to investigate the President’s assertion. Both House and Senate intelligence committees are also currently investigating Russia’s meddling in the recent presidential election.
“I think there is clearly a role that Congress can play in its oversight capabilities. They’ve made it very clear that they have the staff, the resources and the process. I think that’s the appropriate place for this to handle,” White House Spokesman Sean Spicer said during the daily White House press briefing.
When asked about the White House’s push for Congress to investigate the claim, Burr responded, “We’re working as fast as we can but we can only go where the facts or the intelligence send us.”
The head of the House intelligence committee Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) suggested that the President Trump may have been unclear in his assertion and that the press shouldn’t take the President’s comments here literally.
“As you all know, the President is a neophyte to politics. He’s been doing this for a little over a year. And I think a lot of the things that he says you guys sometimes take literally,” Nunes said during a press conference. The House intelligence chair concurred with Burr that there currently is no evidence suggesting that Trump’s claim is correct.