James Clapper, former director of national intelligence under former President Barack Obama, denied Sunday the accusation that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower in the latter stages of last year's presidential election.
"There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect, at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign," Clapper said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday morning.
During the interview, Clapper also explained that if there was a FISA court order to conduct any surveillance then he would have known about it, but continued to deny that any order was ever issued against Trump.
Former DNI Clapper on @MeetThePress: There was no wiretapping mounted against the president or his campaign https://t.co/GgiRQyp9fK
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) March 5, 2017
However, as conservative and Republican pundits were quick to point out on Twitter, it's hard to believe Clapper's comments because he has a history of lying about issues of surveillance.
Ben Shapiro noted that what Clapper said on NBC may be true, but reminded his followers of the false testimony he gave to Congress under oath in 2013 about NSA spying:
Clapper says no wiretapping of Trump Tower. That may be true. But here is another thing Clapper said about surveill… https://t.co/8Fah9tctgZ— Ben Shapiro (@Ben Shapiro) 1488730389.0
Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham also noted Clapper's false testimony to Congress:
Clapper was on @MeetThePress for entire seg. & @chucktodd didn’t ask him one Q abt his own lying to Congress. https://t.co/4R3Oa3EYby— Laura Ingraham (@Laura Ingraham) 1488732760.0
Others piled on:
Clapper cannot be the final word on any of this - lied to Congress, downplayed Iran threat assessment, misled about bin Laden documents.— Stephen Hayes (@Stephen Hayes) 1488727468.0
Shouldn't Democrats get someone more credible than James Clapper to make these denials? Like any randomly chosen person.— Glenn Greenwald (@Glenn Greenwald) 1488737073.0
So I see we're all taking James Clapper's word despite the fact that actually admitted to lying to Congress under oath. Fascinating.— Brandon (@Brandon) 1488732730.0