Ryan on Trump’s claims: ‘No such wiretap existed’

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday pushed back on President Trump’s accusation that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign, saying “no such wiretap existed.”

“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.

“We’ve seen no evidence of that,” he added when pressed about Trump’s claim.

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Ryan echoed comments Wednesday from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who said of Trump’s wiretap accusation, “We don’t have any evidence that that took place.”

Shortly after Ryan’s comments, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, released a statement with the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), dismissing Trump’s wiretapping claims.

“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 stated.

Top Republicans have denied the allegations as White House officials have modified their rhetoric on wiretapping claims the president initially made in a series of tweets earlier this month.

“When I say wiretapping, those words were in quotes … because wiretapping is pretty old-fashioned stuff — but that really covers surveillance and many other things,” Trump told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday. 

“And nobody ever talks about the fact that it was in quotes, but that’s a very important thing,” he added.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer suggested last week that Trump would not withdraw his comments.

Nunes is among four top House and Senate intelligence committee lawmakers investigating whether Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election to say they have seen no evidence yet to support Trump’s accusation.

The House Intelligence Committee has asked the Justice Department to release evidence of a wiretap by Monday.