Former British prime minister Tony Blair disputed Thursday claims in an upcoming book on the Trump White House that he informed Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner that Trump’s campaign may have been under British surveillance during the 2016 election.
“The story is complete fabrication, literally from beginning to end. I’ve never had such conversation in the White House, outside of the House House, with Jared Kushner, with anybody else,” Blair said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, according to USA Today.
Excerpts from Michael Wolff’s upcoming book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” were made public Wednesday and dominated conversation in the nation’s capital.
{mosads}The book claims Blair told Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and now a White House senior adviser, that the British had the Trump campaign staff under surveillance and was monitoring its communications, The Times of London reported.
But Blair, who served as British prime minister from 1997 to 2007, pushed back on the report.
“Here’s a story that is literally an invention and is now half way around the world with conspiracy theories attached to it. That’s modern politics,” Blair told the BBC.
The book also included reports that Trump was shocked at his 2016 victory, and comments from former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon that Trump likely knew about the 2016 meeting between his son and a Russian lawyer.
A number of figures quoted in the book pushed back on its claims, with White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying the book is filled with “false and misleading” information.