White House: Trump ‘confident’ DOJ will produce wiretapping evidence

President Trump is “extremely confident” that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will produce evidence that former President Obama wiretapped him last year, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday.

“I think he’s extremely confident,” Spicer said in response to a question about the accusation, adding that Trump believed the evidence would “vindicate him.” 

“I think there’s significant reporting about surveillance techniques that existed throughout the 2016 election,” Spicer said at the daily White House briefing. 

{mosads}The DOJ on Monday evening asked for more time to comply with the House Intelligence Committee’s request for evidence backing up Trump’s wiretapping claims, just hours before the panel’s midnight deadline. The panel asked for the evidence — in the form of applications, orders or warrants — last week.  

In a statement, Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) hinted that the committee could resort to issuing a subpoena for the evidence if the DOJ does not comply by a new deadline. 

“The Department of Justice has asked for more time to comply with the House Intelligence Committee’s request for information related to possible surveillance of Donald Trump or his associates during the election campaign,” Nunes said. 

“We have asked the Department to provide us this information before the Committee’s open hearing scheduled for March 20. If the committee does not receive a response by then, the Committee will ask for this information during the March 20 hearing and may resort to a compulsory process if our questions continue to go unanswered,” he said.  

Spicer said Tuesday that he hoped the matter would not come to a subpoena request and declined to expand on what the DOJ might produce. Still, he expressed confidence that evidence would be relayed to the committee. 

“We know that there is significant reporting on this subject,” Spicer said. 

Trump alleged on Twitter two weeks ago that Obama ordered his “wires tapped” at Trump Tower before the election. The White House has not produced evidence to bolster the claims, instead citing media reports. 

Spicer appeared to walk back the accusation at Monday’s press briefing, saying that Trump used the word “wiretap” to refer more broadly to surveillance activities.

“I think there’s no question that the Obama administration, that there were actions about surveillance and other activities that occurred in the 2016 election,” Spicer told reporters Monday.

“The President used the word ‘wiretaps’ in quotes to mean, broadly, surveillance and other activities.”