Trump looks to Congress on 'tap'; FBI disputes issue

PALM BEACH, Florida - A US official said the FBI has asked the Justice Department to dispute US President Donald Trump's claim that former President Barack Obama had Trump's telephones tapped during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump, who has called for a congressional investigation, claimed in a series of tweets without providing evidence on Saturday that his predecessor had tried to undermine him by tapping the telephones at Trump Tower, the New York skyscraper where Trump based his campaign and transition operations, and maintains a home.

The FBI has asked the Justice Department to dispute Trump's allegations, a US official told The Associated Press on Sunday. The official wasn't authorized to discuss the request by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Obama's director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said nothing matching Trump's claims had taken place.

"Absolutely, I can deny it," said Clapper, who left government when Trump took office in January.

No such statement has been issued by the Justice Department. DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores declined to comment Sunday, and an FBI spokesman also did not comment.

The New York Times reported that senior American officials say FBI Director James Comey has argued that the claim must be corrected by the Justice Department because it falsely insinuates that the FBI broke the law.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said without elaborating Sunday that Trump's instruction to Congress was based on "very troubling" reports "concerning potentially politically motivated investigations immediately ahead of the 2016 election". Spicer did not respond to inquiries about the reports he cited in announcing the request.

Spicer said the White House wants the congressional committees to "exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016". He said there would be no further comment until the investigations are completed.

"It's called a wrap-up smear," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said. "You make up something. Then you have the press write about it. And then you say, everybody is writing about this charge. It's a tool of an authoritarian," Pelosi said.

Spicer's chief deputy, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said she believes that Trump is "going off of information that he's seen that has led him to believe that this is a very real potential".

Josh Earnest, who was Obama's press secretary, said presidents do not have authority to unilaterally order the wiretapping of American citizens, as Trump has alleged was done to him. FBI investigators and Justice Department officials must seek a federal judge's approval for such a step.

Earnest accused Trump of leveling the allegations to distract from the attention being given to campaign-season contacts by Trump aides with a Russian official, including campaign adviser Jeff Sessions before he resigned from the Senate to become attorney general. The FBI is investigating those contacts, as is Congress.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said in a statement that the panel "will follow the evidence where it leads, and we will continue to be guided by the intelligence and facts as we compile our findings".

Representative Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the committee "will make inquiries into whether the government was conducting surveillance activities on any political party's campaign officials or surrogates".