New York police officers guard the entrance of Trump Tower as protesters gather against President Donald Trump on August 14 in New York. | Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images Justice Department: No evidence Obama wiretapped Trump Tower

There is no evidence to support President Donald Trump's claim that President Barack Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign, the Justice Department said in a new court filing.

The DOJ made the statement in a motion for summary judgment filed Friday in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the watchdog group American Oversight.


"Both FBI and NSD confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets," the government said, referring to the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

James Comey, who was FBI director at the time Trump made the statements, also said, in sworn testimony before Congress, that neither the FBI nor the Justice Department had information to support the tweets. Trump later fired Comey, a move that has come under increasing scrutiny amid federal investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.

“The FBI and Department of Justice have now sided with former Director Comey and confirmed in writing that President Trump lied when he tweeted that former President Obama ‘wiretapped’ him at Trump Tower,” said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight.

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Trump has never produced any evidence to back up the explosive claim, which he made on Twitter in March, and which a spokesman for Obama promptly denied.

"Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!" Trump wrote at the time.

"How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!" Trump added.

In response to a question about the DOJ filing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Saturday, “This is not news,” and that the White House had responded to the matter weeks ago.

The White House has argued that Trump's comments were merely alleging surveillance, which is why he put "wires tapped" in quotation marks in the initial tweet.