Former National Security Agency and CIA Director Michael Hayden dismissed President Trump’s claim that former President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign.
Appearing on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Tuesday night, Hayden responded “no” when asked by the host if it’s possible that Obama ordered surveillance on Trump Tower.
{mosads}“Because in the 1970s, we took the authority to direct that action out of the hands of the president and we put it in the hands of the federal court system,” Hayden added.
“So the only part of the U.S. government, which has the authority, the only part of the U.S. government that can grant the authority to do that, is a federal judge.”
Obama, through a spokesman, denied Trump’s allegations that he ordered any surveillance.
“A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” said Kevin Lewis in a statement.
“As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen,” Lewis added. “Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”
Hayden also responded to a report from WikiLeaks that said the CIA is hacking smartphone and television devices to spy on their owners.
“I can tell you that these tools would not be used against an American,” he said.