- The Washington Times - Monday, March 20, 2017

President Trump was not backing down Monday from his claim that the Obama administration “wiretapped” Trump Tower during the campaigning, despite the FBI director testifying that there was no evidence, said the White House.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said there were more congressional hearings to come and that all the information about government surveillance of the Trump campaign had not yet been revealed.

He also said the president continued to have confidence in FBI Director James Comey.

Still, Mr. Spicer stressed that the hearing earlier Monday, where Mr. Comey testified before the House Intelligence Committee was “one in a series of hearings.”

“I think there are a lot of areas that need to be covered,” said Mr. Spicer.

Mr. Trump has been criticized for leveling the charge on Twitter two weeks ago that President Obama ordered the “wiretapping.”

The later clarified that “wiretapping” described a range of surveillance activities that could have been directed at his campaign aides who have been accused of colluding with the Russian government.

Reporters asked Mr. Trump about wiretapping during an Oval Office meeting Monday afternoon with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Mr. Trump didn’t respond to the question, but smiled when Mr. Abadi grabbed the president’s arm and joked, “We had nothing to do with the wiretap.”

• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.

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