Joe.My.God. LGBT News
USA Today reports:
Britain’s intelligence agency called allegations that it wiretapped President Trump during the U.S. election campaign, “utterly ridiculous” claims “that should be ignored.” The statement by the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which hardly ever responds to allegations about its spying activities, came after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer repeated a claim first made on Fox News in a press briefing Thursday.
Spicer read out a statement he said that former judge and legal analyst Andrew Napolitano made on Fox News on Tuesday: “Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command. He didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI and he didn’t use the Department of Justice, he used GCHQ.” “Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wire tapping’ against the then President Elect are nonsense,” GCHQ said in a statement.
More from CNN:
The White House has promised not to repeat allegations that a UK intelligence agency spied on US President Donald Trump at the behest of former President Barack Obama, the British government said Friday. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May said UK officials had protested to the Trump administration after the claims were repeated by US Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
“We’ve made clear to the US administration that these claims are ridiculous and should be ignored. We’ve received assurances that these allegations won’t be repeated,” the spokesman said. GCHQ — Government Communications Headquarters — uses intelligence collecting and wiretapping tools to gather information for the UK government. It rarely comments on specific operations, and almost never in such blunt terms. UK intelligence agencies work closely with their US counterparts, as well as those in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as part of the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing agreement.