House Intelligence still waiting for proof; Trump defends wiretap claims

Members of the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that they have not yet found proof that links former President Barack Obama to an alleged wiretapping of Trump Tower. Amid the investigations, US President Donald Trump defended his tweets about wire tap.

Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Republican Rep. Devin Nunes and ranking member Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff addressed the committee's findings with some members of the press. Both said they are currently waiting for the Justice Department to present evidence.

Schiff said it deeply concerns him that Trump has tweeted such accusation without presenting evidence. Nunes, on the other hand, admitted in the news conference that he does not believe that there has been an actual tap of Trump Tower, VMUR with the Associated Press reports.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer earlier said that Trump was "extremely confident" that evidence will be found to support that the previous administration wiretapped the latter during the 2016 presidential campaign. “I'll leave it to them to issue their report, but I think he feels very confident that what will ultimately come of this will vindicate him," Spicer said in his Tuesday press briefing.

Meanwhile, the president clarified that the term wire tap can mean a lot of different things. “I think you're going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks,” he said during an interview with Fox host Tucker Carlson.

Last month, Trump seemed to have accused Obama of tapping phones at Trump Tower and called his predecessor a bad (or sick) guy."How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process," he tweeted.

Spicer clarified on Monday that the president "doesn't really think" Obama "personally" wiretapped him before the election. Instead, Trump had accused the former POTUS of generally surveilling him.

Trump had also spoken up about the disclosure of his 2005 tax returns. The White House has released the POTUS’ financial information after an MSNBC host tweeted that they were able to obtain a copy of the president’s tax returns.

He said he has no idea where the US news organisation got its copy, but insisted that was illegal, they should not have it and it is not supposed to be leaked. “It's certainly not an embarrassing tax return at all, but it's an illegal thing they've been doing it. They've done it before, and I think it's a disgrace,” Trump said.