FBI director James Comey says there is no evidence to support Donald Trump’s claims he was wiretapped by Barack Obama
Slapdown by agency chief echoed by NSA boss telling US lawmakers claims Brit spooks spied on Trump were 'nonsense'
THE head of the FBI piled pressure on Donald Trump to make a humiliating climbdown over claims President Obama wiretapped his glitzy Trump Tower office.
James Comey told US lawmakers he was not aware of any evidence to support allegations made in a Trump Twitter rant earlier this month.
In a scathing rebuke, he added that the US Department of Justice has nothing to back up the explosive fact-free claims.
"I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI", he told a congressional hearing.
National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers also laid into the Trump team's wiretap allegations.
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He directly addressed claims spread by top administration officials, including the President's spokesperson Sean Spicer, alleging that British spooks helped keep tabs on him during the election.
He told the hearing there is no evidence UK intelligence agencies were involved in any wiretap on the New York skyscraper, slamming the claims as "nonsense".
Trump had alleged, without providing proof, that President Obama ordered a wiretap on his office during the US election — which would be a serious constitutional breach.
The House Intelligence Committee gathered the men as part of a Russian affairs probe into claims of Kremlin hacking and pro-Trump collusion in the election.
He confirmed in an extraordinary revelation that the agency is investigating whether there was Kremlin collusion with the Republican's run for office.
Comey said the work "includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government."
Other congressional committees also are investigating the possible Russian connection, mostly behind closed doors.
"Because it is an open, ongoing investigation and is classified, I cannot say more about what we are doing and whose conduct we are examining," Comey added on the Russian investigation.
Both he and Rogers stood by their assessment's that Russian meddling in the election was in order to aid Trump and damage Clinton, with Comey saying it was a "fairly easy judgement".
Lawmakers said they would make public as much of their investigations as possible.
Russia denies it attempted to influence the Nov. 8 Presidential election.
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