The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday there is no indication that Trump Tower was ever the "subject of surveillance" by the U.S. government.
Committee chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and ranking Democrat Mark Warner (Va.), who are also leading an investigation into Russia's alleged involvement with the presidential election, issued a one-sentence statement that read, "Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016."
President Donald Trump earlier this month accused former President Barack Obama of "wiretapping" Trump Tower.
Burr and Warner's conclusion follows a similar statement by House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and ranking Democrat Adam Schiff (Calif.), who on Wednesday declared there was no evidence of the tower, which serves as the headquarters for Trump's corporate empire, being bugged.
Nunes and White House press secretary Sean Spicer separately encouraged people not to take Trump's statements literally—but for most observers, that wasn't a good enough response.
"Now that you've acknowledged that Trump falsely accused a former president of a felony, what are you going to do about it?" tweeted ThinkProgress editor Judd Legum.
Now that you've acknowledged that Trump falsely accused a former president of a felony, what are you going to do about it? pic.twitter.com/QVn0Ae857N
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 16, 2017
