NSA director says British intelligence was not asked to spy on Trump

British intelligence officials were formally exonerated on Monday by the director of the US National Security Agency from an extraordinary accusation of improper surveillance of Donald Trump.

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The NSA director, Michael Rogers, made clear that it would have been a violation of US law to ask the British to conduct such an operation. Asked at the first public hearing into Trump’s ties to Russia whether he, or anyone else, had asked GCHQ to spy on Trump or his allies, Rogers replied: “No, sir, nor would I.”

GCHQ took rare public exception last week when the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, cited a Fox News report that implied Barack Obama’s administration had asked the UK to conduct surveillance on Trump.

GCHQ, which typically does not comment on news reports, called the accusation “nonsense”, “utterly ridiculous” and an assertion that ought to be “ignored”.

Rogers, his voice passionate, said that using GCHQ to effectively launder illegal surveillance on Americans would be “against the Five Eyes concept”.

Five Eyes is the surveillance alliance between the US, UK, New Zealand, Canada and Australia, which include widespread intelligence sharing and mutual development of surveillance tools.

GCHQ in particular is the closest intelligence partner the NSA possesses. NSA and GCHQ personnel share code, and, in several locations, physically work side by side. Their intimate nature was underscored by Rogers’ deputy, Rick Ledgett, telling the BBC that the accusation showed an ignorance of the GCHQ-NSA partnership.

“Of course they wouldn’t do it. It would be epically stupid,” Ledgett said.

Spicer recycled the GCHQ allegation, made by a Fox News pundit, in order to defend Trump’s 4 March accusation, made on Twitter, that Obama placed Trump’s associates under surveillance at Trump Tower. Obama has unequivocally denied the accusation, which, if proven, would mean that he had committed a felony.

The FBI director, James Comey, on Monday publicly called the accusation groundless, the first time he has commented on the explosive accusation. Comey joined the Republican and Democratic leadership of the intelligence committees in finding no basis for Trump’s incendiary claim.

Yet Trump has still not backed away from the accusation of GCHQ surveillance on him, even after GCHQ expressed its anger. Trump, in a White House press conference meeting last week with Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, said he was merely citing Fox News. Trump joked that he and Merkel, whom the NSA had indeed spied upon, had something in common.

That remark prompted Sir Peter Westmacott, former British ambassador to Washington, to accuse Trump of “peddling falsehoods”. “This is a dangerous game,” Westmacott wrote in the Guardian. “The intelligence relationship between Britain and America is unique and precious. It is critical to our shared efforts to counter terrorism.”

Asked by the House intelligence committee whether the false assertions might damage the intelligence-sharing relationship, Rogers, the NSA chief said: “It clearly frustrates allies of ours.”