Justice Department complying with congressional surveillance probe
Information was requested by the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees.
— -- The U.S. Department of Justice today announced that it has "complied" with a request for information related to unsubstantiated accusations made by President Trump that he was "wiretapped" during the 2016 presidential election.
The information was solicited by the House and Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees in the aftermath of the allegations, first made via Twitter, almost two weeks ago.
Justice Department officials went to Capitol Hill today to respond to questions about possible surveillance during the 2016 election. The DOJ officials briefed the chairmen and ranking members of four key committees and came with classified documents for them to review in a secure setting. The four committees were Senate and House Intelligence, and Senate and House Judiciary. One staff member of each committee was also present at this secure location at the Capitol.
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, issued a statement later in the day, saying, “The committee is satisfied that the Department of Justice has fully complied with our request for information from our March 8 letter on possible surveillance related to Donald Trump or his associates."
He added: "The committee still has not received information requested from the CIA and FBI in our March 15 letter that is necessary to determine whether information collected on U.S. persons was mishandled and leaked. However, the NSA has partially met our request and has committed to fully meet our request by the end of next week.”
The Justice Department did not provide details on the extent of the information it provided to the committees. The White House has yet to provide any evidence for the president's statements, but has since claimed he was referring to surveillance in general terms and not specifically to the tapping of phones.
Shortly after Trump tweeted the accusations, FBI Director James Comey privately asked the Justice Department to refute the story, government sources familiar with Comey's thinking have confirmed to ABC News. Comey, himself, has not publicly commented on the matter.
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