Story highlights A former Obama spokesperson calls Trump's allegation "simply false"

James Clapper denied the FBI could have tapped Trump's phones through a FISA court order

Washington (CNN) Former White House officials are strongly refuting President Donald Trump's stunning allegation that his predecessor, Barack Obama, wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower ahead of the 2016 election.

Although Obama has yet to respond to the claim himself, a spokesman to Obama called "any suggestion" that Obama or any White House official ordered surveillance against Trump "simply false."

"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," Kevin Lewis said in a statement early Saturday afternoon. "As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."

Neither @barackobama nor any WH official under Obama has ever ordered surveillance on any US Citizen. Any suggestion is unequivocally false pic.twitter.com/qF04X3NUvq — Kevin Lewis (@KLewis44) March 4, 2017

Obama himself was at the National Gallery of Art in Washington Sunday with his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, People magazine reported

Building on Lewis' remarks, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who served under Obama, said Sunday that the intelligence agencies he supervised did not wiretap Trump last year, nor did the FBI obtain a court order through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor Trump's phones.

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