No Evidence Trump Tower Was Wiretapped, Lawmakers Say

The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence publicly rebuked President Trump, saying that they have seen no evidence to support his claims that Trump Tower had been subject to surveillance before the 2016 election.

“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," they said in a statement.

That followed comments the day before from Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican, and Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, that they have seen "no evidence" that Trump Tower has been wire tapped, despite President Trump's accusations on Twitter that President Obama had surveilled the building.

"We don't have any evidence that that took place," Nunes, who is the chairman of the House Intelligence committee, said of the president's assertion. "I don’t think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower."

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“Are you going to take the tweets literally? If you are, then clearly the president was wrong,” he added.

He did, however, say that he was concerned that some of Trump's associates may have been surveilled in other ways and that their names were leaked to the press. Nunes noted that he and Schiff will continue to investigate those issues.

Nunes has been a vocal defender of Trump's since the president took office.

Just the day before, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had said during his briefing with reporters that the president was "very confident" the Justice Department would vindicate his claims. At the same time, Spicer hedged on what Trump meant, saying that the quotes around "wires tapped" indicated broader surveillance, not just listening in to phone calls.

Spicer has previously praised Nunes for the congressman's praise of Trump.

Schiff, speaking on the White House's defense of Trump's claims, said, "I don't think they have the foggiest idea what was behind the president's claim except maybe something he watched on TV. I think the rest is designed to downplay, minimize, or obfuscate the fact that the president said something that is patently untrue. But that is my interpretation."

Earlier in the day, Attorney General Jeff Sessions told reporters that he never presented the president with any evidence suggesting there was surveillance of Trump Tower.

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Colin Miner contributed reporting

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images News/Getty Images