Washington: Members of the Trump presidential campaign were under surveillance last year, the head of a key Congressional panel on intelligence today said in a startling revelation that could bolster Donald Trump’s claims that he was wiretapped by US intelligence.
“I recently confirmed that on numerous occasions, the intelligence community incidentally collected information about US citizens involved in the Trump transition,” Congressman David Nunes, Chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence told reporters at a news conference.
The startling revelation by Nunes adds a new dimension to the allegations that the Trump Towers was being wiretapped at the direction of the then US President Barack Obama during the election campaign last year.
At his news conference, Nunes said details about US persons associated with the incoming administration, details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value were widely disseminated in the intelligence community reporting.
“I have confirmed that additional names of Trump transition team members were unmasked. Finally, I want to be clear, none of this surveillance was related to Russia or the investigation of Russian activities or the Trump team,” Nunes said.
The White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that Nunes was scheduled to brief the President Donald Trump later on the findings of the investigations.