Conway denies accusing Obama of using CIA surveillance tactics on Trump Tower

Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Monday morning that she was not making a specific allegation when she answered a reporter’s question over the weekend about President Donald Trump’s wiretapping claims by remarking that “you can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets — any number of ways.”

In an interview with The Record published Sunday evening, Conway was asked whether she knew for certain that Trump’s claim, that his Manhattan skyscraper was wiretapped on orders from former President Barack Obama, was accurate. In response, Conway told the Bergen County, New Jersey, newspaper that “what I can say is there are many ways to surveil each other… you can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets — any number of ways.”


White House officials have yet to offer any proof to back up Trump's explosive claim, first leveled on Twitter last weekend, even though such proof would conceivably be readily available to the president.

Conway’s response to The Record was seemingly a reference to unverified documents published last week by WikiLeaks, detailing CIA surveillance tactics that include using household electronics, including televisions, computers and cell phones to record their owners.

But Monday morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the counselor to the president said her answer to The Record should not be interpreted as an allegation that the Obama administration turned Trump Tower’s electronics against the current president.

"All I said to the Bergen Record is, I was making a comment about the articles from this past week where it is revealed that one can be surveilled in any number of techniques through microwaves, through cameras, through televisions. I wasn't talking about anything specifically,” she said. “I wasn’t making a suggestion about Trump Tower. Those are two separate things.”

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In a subsequent interview, Conway was more forceful in her comments.

“I'm not Inspector Gadget,” she said later in an interview on CNN’s “New Day.” I don't believe people are using the microwave to spy on the Trump campaign. However, I'm not in the job of having evidence. That's what investigations are for."

Madeline Conway contributed to this story.