London, Washington: A White House official has agreed not to repeat claims the UK's communications intelligence agency, GCHQ, wiretapped Donald Trump during the presidential election campaign.
GCHQ rejected allegations made by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, that it spied on Trump, as "nonsense", according to a BBC report.
The British government has now been assured by Spicer he would not repeat the accusation. A spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said it had been made clear to US authorities the claims were "ridiculous and should have been ignored".
'Utterly ridiculuous claim'
Earlier on Friday, Britain's GCHQ intelligence agency dismissed claims made on a US television station that it helped former President Barack Obama eavesdrop on Donald Trump after last year's US presidential election.
In a rare public statement, Britain's eavesdropping agency said the charge — made on Tuesday by Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano — was "utterly ridiculous".
"Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct 'wire tapping' against the then President Elect are nonsense," a spokesman for GCHQ said.
"They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored," the spokesman said.
GCHQ never usually comments on criticism of its work beyond saying it always operates under a strict legal framework.
Reuters reported earlier this week that an unidentified British security official had denied the allegation that GCHQ had eavesdropped on Trump.
Trump, who became president in January, tweeted earlier this month that his Democratic predecessor had wiretapped him during the late stages of the 2016 campaign.
The Republican president offered no evidence for the allegation, which an Obama spokesman said was "simply false".
On the Fox & Friends program, Napolitano, a political commentator and former New Jersey judge, said that rather than ordering US agencies to spy on Trump, Obama obtained transcripts of Trump's conversations from Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, the equivalent of the US National Security Agency, which monitors overseas electronic communications.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Thursday quoted Napolitano's comment on GCHQ.
GCHQ, based in a futuristic building named the doughnut because of its shape located in Cheltenham in western England, is one of three main British spy agencies alongside the MI6 Secret Intelligence Service and the MI5 Security Service.
White House suggests UK helped Obama spy on Trump
Washington: The White House on Thursday cited unproven media reports that President Barack Obama asked Britain’s signals intelligence agency, GCHQ, to monitor Donald Trump in order to “make sure there were no American fingerprints.”
Speaking from the White House podium press secretary Sean Spicer quoted at length from a Fox News report, which alleged Obama had used GCHQ to dodge US legal restrictions on monitoring US citizens.
The story was one of several offered by Spicer as evidence to support the president’s explosive claims that Obama had moved to “tap my phones.”
In a series of tweets on March 4, Trump accused Obama of a “Nixon/Watergate”-like plot that would almost certainly break US law.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” one tweet read.
Members of Congress from both parties who are investigating the claims have found no evidence to support them.
In the Fox report — which came almost two weeks later — Andrew Napolitano claimed that “three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command” to order the tap.
“He didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI, and he didn’t use the Department of Justice,” Napolitano said, adding that Obama used GCHQ.
Spicer’s citation, in front of the White House seal, raised some eyebrows in London and at the Cheltenham-headquartered agency, which has worked closely with US intelligence for decades.
“Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wire tapping’ against the then president-elect are nonsense,” one GCHQ spokesperson told AFP.
“They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.”
Britain and the United States are — along with Australia, Canada and New Zealand — part of the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing alliance forged from the embers of the Second World War.
