Fox's Napolitano: British spies wiretapped Trump for Obama
Fox senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said on Fox & Friends and in a Fox column, citing unnamed intelligence sources, that Obama used Britain's GCHQ to surveil Trump so there would be no American fingerprints.
The claim backed Trump's unsupported March 2017 accusation that Obama had wiretapped him.
What was reported
Fox senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said on Fox & Friends and in a Fox column, citing unnamed intelligence sources, that Obama used Britain's GCHQ to surveil Trump so there would be no American fingerprints.
What actually happened
White House press secretary Sean Spicer repeated the claim from the briefing room the same day. GCHQ issued a rare public statement calling it nonsense, NSA Director Mike Rogers told Congress he had seen nothing to support it, and one of Napolitano's own sources said he had been misrepresented. Fox distanced itself and pulled Napolitano from the air for nearly two weeks; he returned still standing by the claim.
The proof
GCHQ's March 17, 2017 public denial, NSA Director Rogers' testimony that he saw no such request or activity, and Fox's sidelining of Napolitano.
The receipt. Copy this and paste it anywhere:
Fox's Napolitano: British spies wiretapped Trump for Obama — Debunked. GCHQ's March 17, 2017 public denial, NSA Director Rogers' testimony that he saw no such request or activity, and Fox's sidelining of Napolitano. Full file: https://www.thepropagandafiles.com/case/fox-napolitano-gchq-wiretap/
Original reporting
- Fox News opinion: Andrew Napolitano, Did Obama spy on Trump?https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andrew-napolitano-did-obama-spy-on-trump
Corrections, findings & records
- The Guardian: GCHQ denies wiretap claimhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/16/gchq-denies-wiretap-claim-trump-obama
- The New York Times: Fox News and Napolitano after the GCHQ claimhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/business/media/fox-andrew-napolitano-trump.html
- The Washington Post: Napolitano reportedly pulled from Fox over debunked wiretapping claimshttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/03/21/andrew-napolitano-reportedly-pulled-from-fox-news-over-debunked-wiretapping-claims/
- The Hill: Napolitano source says British wiretap claim didn't get it righthttps://thehill.com/homenews/324707-ex-intelligence-official-napolitanos-british-wire-tapping-claim-didnt-get-it-right/
Archived copies
Stories get edited after publication. These open the Internet Archive's earliest saved copy of each original.
- Archived copy: Fox News opinion: Andrew Napolitano, Did Obama spy on Trump?https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andrew-napolitano-did-obama-spy-on-trump