Feds Seek More Time to Prove Trump Wiretap Claim

The Justice Department has asked for more time to grant the House Intelligence Committee's request for proof of President Trump's extraordinary claim that he was wiretapped by his predecessor. A department spokeswoman says they need time "to review the request in compliance with the governing legal authorities and to determine what if any responsive documents may exist," reports Reuters, which notes that the DOJ isn't officially required to respond to the House committee's request. A spokesman for the committee, which had set a Monday deadline, says they may "resort to a compulsory process" if they don't have anything by the time of a planned hearing on March 20.

The heads of a Senate subcommittee on crime have also requested copies of warrants or anything else that would support Trump's claim that Barack Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped during Trump's campaign, the Washington Post reports. On Monday, press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that the word "wiretapping" "spans a whole host of surveillance types of options" and that Trump "doesn't really think that President Obama went up and tapped his phone personally." The remark came in response to questions from NBC's Peter Alexander, who asked if the wiretapping was "phony or real" and wondered whether Americans should trust their president, Politico reports. (More wiretapping stories.)