The House Intelligence Committee has seen no evidence to back up President Donald Trump's claims that his predecessor President Barack Obama wiretapped him and his associates during the 2016 election.

Their answer comes after President Trump called on them to investigate after he accused Obama of having his "'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory" in a tweet on 4 March. Trump said it was on par with "Nixon/Watergate" and called Obama a "Bad (or sick) guy!" The president failed to provide any evidence for his claim and said Congress should check it out.

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"There's no evidence that there was a wiretap of Trump and his associates," said Rep Adam Schiff (D-CA) the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee on 15 March. He spoke during a joint press conference with the Committee's chair Rep Devin Nunes (R-CA) to address the issue.

"We don't have any evidence that that took place. I don't think there was an actual tap of Trump Tower," said Nunes, He said that if the president's tweets are being taken literally, "then clearly the president was wrong."

However, Nunes said he is "even more concerned" than ever about the incident intercept of Americans' communications revealed by leaks about the Trump campaign's communications with Russian officials.

Schiff said the Intelligence Committee has so far seen no evidence during their probe of Russian influence on the US election to support Trump's claim. He added that they still expect the Department of Justice to respond to a letter they sent asking from them to hand over any information about wiretaps before 20 March.

"We're both willing to use compulsory process if that's necessary," said Schiff, adding that the committee will ask FBI Director James Comey directly for any evidence during a hearing next week.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said on Tuesday that President Trump is "extremely confident" that further investigation would turn up the evidence to back up his claim.

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