President Trump Aides Defend Wiretapping Claim Against President Obama |

White House advisers aren't backing away from President Donald Trump's claim that President Barack Obama wiretapped his campaign.

They insisted that Trump believes the explosive allegations he made over the weekend, for which he provided no evidence. The allegations were swiftly denied by an Obama spokesman and by Obama's intelligence chief.

Kellyanne Conway told "Fox & Friends" Monday that "credible news sources" suggested there was politically motivated activity during the campaign. She added that as president, Trump "has information and intelligence that the rest of us do not."

Likewise, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, deputy White House press secretary, told NBC's "Today" show that the president "firmly believes that the Obama administration may have tapped into the phones at Trump Tower."

When asked whether Trump's assertions were based on media reports or U.S. intelligence, Sanders said "he may have access to documents that I don't know about."

Meanwhile, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin is distancing the Kremlin from President Trump's claim that Obama tapped his phones during the election campaign.

The claim comes amid the swirl of revelations about contacts between Trump aides and Russia's ambassador to the U.S., both during and after a presidential election Russia is believed to have meddled in.

When asked about the allegation, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday that the Kremlin "should not be in any way linked to U.S. domestic issues" and "doesn't have the slightest inclination or intention to be associated with these affairs."

Trump has been trailed for months by questions about his campaign's ties to Russia. Disclosures about his aides' contacts with the Russian ambassador cost Michael Flynn his job as national security adviser.