WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump refused to back down Friday from his claim that Barack Obama wiretapped his phones, and he sidestepped any blame for the White House decision to highlight an unverified report that the United Kingdom helped carry out the alleged surveillance.
Trump also revived another diplomatic dispute: the Obama administration's monitoring of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's calls.
"At least we have something in common, perhaps," Trump quipped during a joint news conference with Merkel.
Merkel was making her first visit to the White House since Trump took office.
[PRESIDENT TRUMP: Timeline, appointments, executive orders + guide to actions in first 100 days]
The Obama administration's spying infuriated Germany at the time and risked damaging the U.S.' relationship with one of its most important European partners.
Trump's fellow Republican as well as Democratic lawmakers have said they've seen nothing from intelligence agencies to support his claim. But Trump has been unmoved, leaving his advisers to defend the president without any credible evidence.
On Thursday, spokesman Sean Spicer turned to a Fox News analyst's contention that GCHQ, the British electronic intelligence agency, helped Obama wiretap Trump. Fox News anchor Shepard Smith said Friday that the network could not independently verify the reports from Andrew Napolitano, a former judge and commentator who has met with Trump.
"Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now president of the United States was surveilled at any time, any way. Full stop," Smith said on air.
The GCHQ denied the charges in a public statement, saying the report was "utterly ridiculous and should be ignored."
According to a Western diplomat, the U.K.'s ambassador to Washington, Kim Darroch, had told the White House on Tuesday that Napolitano's assertions were not true. Still, it was among several news reports that Spicer referenced in his briefing Thursday as part of a defense of the president's claims.
Darroch and other British officials complained directly to White House officials after the episode. Prime Minister Theresa May's office said it had been assured that the White House would not repeat the allegations. Spicer was very apologetic when confronted by Darroch at a White House dinner Thursday, the Western diplomat said.
But Trump himself offered no public apologies and suggested there was nothing wrong with the White House repeating what it had heard.
"All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television," Trump said during Friday's news conference. "You shouldn't be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox."
Spicer was also defiant Friday, telling reporters: "I don't think we regret anything."
A White House official confirmed that Darroch and the British prime minister's national security adviser, Mark Lyall Grant, expressed concerns to Spicer and to Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster. Spicer and McMaster said the spokesman was simply pointing to public reports and not endorsing any specific story, the official said.
The U.S. and U.K. are members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, which prohibits members from spying on each other. Australia, Canada and New Zealand are the other members.
The diplomat and White House official both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Trump's accusation that Obama had wiretapped his telephones continued to unnerve even fellow Republicans. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Friday that Trump had not proven his case and should apologize to Obama.
"Frankly, unless you can produce some pretty compelling truth, I think President Obama is owed an apology," Cole told reporters.
The House Intelligence Committee did not reveal Friday night whether Justice Department documents substantiate Trump's claim.
The committee had asked for copies of any warrants, applications, or court orders relating to a wiretap of Trump or his surrogates and affiliates in advance of a Monday hearing at which the FBI and National Security Agency directors are expected to testify about alleged connections between the Trump team and Russian authorities.
Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said in a statement late Friday that said his panel is "satisfied" that the Justice Department "has fully complied" with its request related to the "possible surveillance" of Trump and his associates.
Nunes said the CIA and FBI had not yet provided requested information "that is necessary to determine whether information collected on U.S. persons was mishandled and leaked."
Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace, Vivian Salama, Jill Lawless, Jill Colvin and Erica Werner of The Associated Press and by Karoun Demirjian of The Washington Post.
A Section on 03/18/2017