Trump wiretapping scandal enlarges

The intrigue over President Donald Trump’s claims that someone spied on Trump Tower during the campaign has expanded beyond U.S. borders.

In the most recent turn of events, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer received a reprimand from the British ambassador for repeating news reports that the United Kingdom might have helped President Barack Obama conduct surveillance on Trump.

Spicer’s remarks came during a Thursday press conference, where he read multiple news reports suggesting Trump was under surveillance during the campaign. One of the reports, by Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano, suggested GCHQ, the British electronic intelligence agency, had helped with the alleged tapping. Obama, he claimed, “went outside the chain of command” so there were “no American fingerprints on this.”

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed the British raised concerns about the report.

“We have made clear to the administration that these claims are ridiculous and that they should be ignored and we have received assurances that these allegations won’t be repeated,” May spokesman James Slack told reporters today.

Spicer read the news reports after Trump discussed the alleged spying with Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview that aired Wednesday night. Trump told Carlson that his wiretapping claim referred to broader surveillance, not just phone taps. He said he first learned of the possibility from an article in The New York Times. The paper reported Jan. 19, citing anonymous sources, that American law enforcement agencies were reviewing “intercepted communications” between Trump associates and Russian officials, but it did not say how those communications were obtained.

Trump tweeted March 4 that he has just found out he had his “wires tapped” by Obama during the campaign. He told Carlson this week “that really covers surveillance and many other things.” He also said he would submit more information about the claims to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence “very soon.”

Meanwhile, a growing number of lawmakers from both parties have expressed doubts about the validity of Trump’s claim. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday he didn’t believe Trump Tower was actually wiretapped. On Thursday, leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a statement there is no indication that Trump Tower was “the subject of surveillance” by the U.S. government before or after the 2016 election. Also Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said of the wiretapping, “We’ve cleared that up. That—that we’ve seen no evidence of that.”

Some Republicans, including Reps. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Charlie Dent, R-Pa., have called on Trump to apologize or retract his accusations. FBI director James Comey, who has so far been silent on the matter, is scheduled to testify before Congress about it next week. Trump reiterated in a press conference today he believes he was spied on, saying he and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel had both been wiretapped by the Obama administration.