Ex-DNI Clapper on Trump's Wiretap Claim: 'I Can Deny It'

The man who was the director of national intelligence until January 20 wasted little time in shooting down President Trump's claim that former President Obama's administration wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 election, reports the AP. "There was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect at the time, as a candidate or against his campaign," James Clapper told Meet the Press on Sunday, shortly after the White House demanded a congressional investigation into the issue. Clapper says he would have been aware of a "FISA court order on something like this. Absolutely, I can deny it." Elsewhere on the Sunday dial:

• House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi dismissed Trump's claim as attempting to distract from the investigation into Russian influence on the election, notes the BBC. "The Deflector-in-Chief is at it again," she said, calling the notion "just ridiculous," a "smear," and adding that "we don't do that."
• White House rep Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells ABC News that if Congress is "going to investigate Russia ties, let's include this as part of it. That's what we're asking." As to the source of Trump's information, Sanders says he's "going off information that he's seen that have led him to believe that. ... And if it is, this is the greatest overreach and the greatest abuse of power that I think we've ever seen and a huge attack on democracy itself."

(More James Clapper stories.)