The US Department of Justice said on Monday it had asked for more time to respond to a request from lawmakers for evidence about President Donald Trump's allegation that then President Barack Obama wiretapped him during the 2016 election campaign.
Earlier this month, without offering evidence, the Republican president accused his Democratic predecessor of wiretapping him, a charge that Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis said was "simply false."
In response, the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee sent a letter to the Justice Department requesting proof for the allegation by Monday.
Also Read: Obama Denies Trump’s Claim of Being “Wiretapped” Before Election
A department spokeswoman said it needed more time “to review the request in compliance with the governing legal authorities and to determine what if any responsive documents may exist.”
Trump declined to comment on Monday when asked by reporters about the wiretapping issue.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump's original statement, which he released on Twitter, referred to other types of surveillance besides wiretapping.
How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Under the US law, presidents cannot direct wiretapping. Instead, the federal government can ask a court to authorise the action, but it must provide justification.
Top White House aide Kellyanne Conway has said that she had no evidence to back up Donald Trump's claim that his predecessor had wiretapped him, after suggesting her boss may have been spied upon using other methods.
"The answer is I don't have any evidence and I'm very happy that the House Intelligence Committee are investigating," Conway told ABC television Monday.
The senior aide to the president was being pressed to explain weekend comments that seemed to suggest the Obama administration ordered wide-scale surveillance of her boss.
Also Read: What Would It Mean If Obama Really Wiretapped Trump Tower?
"What I can say is there are many ways to surveil each other," Conway told New Jersey's Bergen County Record in a wide-ranging interview published Sunday.
“You can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets – any number of ways,” including “microwaves that turn into cameras,” she told the paper.
"We know this is a fact of modern life." Conway backed away on Monday from the comments – which were greeted with online ridicule – telling ABC's "Good Morning America" she had been referring to "surveillance generally" and not to the president's allegations regarding Trump Tower.
(With inputs from Reuters and PTI.)