WASHINGTON: The chairman of a US congressional committee on intelligence said on Sunday that he has ­seen “no evidence” that President Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the runup to the 2016 election.

Based on “everything I have up to this morning — no evidence of collusion,” said US Representative Devin Nunes, head of the House Intel­ligence Committee, speaking to the Fox News Sunday television programme.

Meanwhile, US lawmakers from both parties said on Sunday they had seen no proof to support the claim by Republican President Donald Tru­mp that his predecessor Barack Oba­ma had wiretapped him last year, adding pressure on Trump to explain or back off his repeated assertion.

Several Republicans last week urged Trump to apologise for the allegations he made in a series of tweets on March 4. The maelstrom also caused tension with key US allies and threatens to distract Republicans from campaign promises on healthcare and taxes.

“I don’t know the basis for President Trump’s assertion,” US Senator Susan Collins, a Repub­lican, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I do believe he owes us that explanation.” Collins said she supported Trump as president, but she wouldn’t side with him if he “misstated what the facts are.”

FBI Director James Comey is expected to be asked about Trump’s claims when he testifies at a rare public hearing on Monday about alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Russia has denied the assertion.

Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intel­ligence Committee holding the hearing, called Trump’s claims “pat­e­ntly false” and said he expe­cted Comey to say as much on Monday.

The White House and Trump allies have sought to focus attention away from the controversies by calling for investigations of leaks to the news media.

Representative Devin Nunes, who leads the House intelligence panel, said leaks to reporters about former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn were criminal and that his panel was probing whether other names were leaked.

Trump has been dogged by allegations that his associates had ties to Russian officials. He fired Flynn last month after reports he had discussed sanctions with Russia’s ambassador before Trump took office, without telling other White House officials.

Nunes, despite being a Trump ally who served on the president-elect’s transition team, has not taken Trump’s side on the wiretapping claim. On Fox, he said he did not believe it occurred.

Still, the White House has not backed down. The administration was forced to reassure key ally Britain after White House press secretary Sean Spicer repeated a Fox News analyst’s claim that

a British intelligence agency helped Obama wiretap Trump. The British government strongly denied it.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2017