Britain’s GCHQ intelligence agency on Friday (March 17) dismissed claims made by a Fox News analyst that it helped former President Barack Obama eavesdrop on Donald Trump during his election campaign.
In a rare public statement, Britain’s GCHQ, Britain’s government communications headquarters, the equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency, which monitors overseas electronic communications, said the claims should be ignored.
In a program broadcast on Tuesday (March 14), Fox News political analyst Andrew Napolitano said that rather than ordering U.S. agencies to spy on Trump, Obama obtained transcripts of Trump’s conversations from GCHQ.
On Thursday (March 16), White House spokesman Sean Spicer quoted Napolitano’s comment.
Trump, who became president in January, tweeted earlier this month that his Democratic predecessor had wiretapped him during the late stages of the 2016 campaign. The Republican president offered no evidence for the allegation, which an Obama spokesman said was simply false.
GCHQ is one of three main British spy agencies alongside the MI6 Secret Intelligence Service and the MI5 Security Service.
(Reuters)