White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway says that she has “no evidence” to back up President Donald Trump’s claim that Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 election.
Conway, 50, spoke about the explosive allegations during an appearance on Good Morning America on Monday, March 13. “I have no evidence, but that’s why there is an investigation in Congress. That is particularly what investigations are for,” she said to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
“Just to to be clear, you are saying you have no evidence for these allegations,” Stephanopoulos, 56, said.
Conway replied: “No, I don’t have any evidence for these allegations.”
Kellyanne Conway to @GStephanopoulos: “I don’t have any evidence” of Pres. Trump’s claims that Obama wiretapped him. https://t.co/Ojrlr2m0zG pic.twitter.com/5sXtc7yjpF
— ABC News (@ABC) March 13, 2017
Trump, 70, made the claims in a series of tweets earlier this month. “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” the former Celebrity Apprentice host wrote via Twitter on March 4. “Just out: The same Russian Ambassador that met Jeff Sessions visited the Obama White House 22 times, and 4 times last year alone. 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! I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election! How low has President Obama gone to [tap] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”
Conway also spoke about the situation during an interview with the Bergen County Record on Sunday. “What I can say is there are many ways to surveil each other now, unfortunately,” she said when asked about the wiretapping claims. “There was an article this week that talked about how you can surveil someone through their phones, through their — certainly through their television sets, any number of different ways, and microwaves that turn into cameras, etc., so we know that that is just a fact of modern life.”
1/2: On wiretap claims, I have said many times that we are pleased the House/Senate Intel Committees are investigating & will comment after
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) March 13, 2017
Conway later clarified her remarks on Twitter. “On wiretap claims, I have said many times that we are pleased the House/Senate Intel Committees are investigating & will comment after. [My] response to Bergen Record was about surveillance articles in news & techniques generally, not about campaign,” she wrote on Monday. “Headline just wrong.”
2/2: response to Bergen Record was about surveillance articles in news & techniques generally, not about campaign. Headline just wrong.
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) March 13, 2017
She added to GMA: “I wasn’t talking about anything specific.”
Obama’s spokesperson Kevin Lewis released a statement about the accusations on March 4. “A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” the statement read. “As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.” The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, asked the Justice Department to publicly reject Trump’s claims that same weekend.
