A spokesperson for former United States President Barack Obama on Saturday has denied Donald Trump’s claim that Obama had wire-tapped his phones during the presidential campaign last year. “No White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice,” said Kevin Lewis. “Neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”

Without providing proof, Trump took to Twitter to accuse Obama of staging a “Nixon/Watergate” by wire-tapping his phones in his Trump Tower office and apartment building in New York In October last year. “How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process. Is it legal for a sitting President to be ‘wire tapping’ a race for president prior to an election?” he said.

Senior officials of the Trump administration said White House Counsel Donald McGahn and his office are looking into the allegations, The Washington Post reported. Tapping into the phone lines or Internet addresses is illegal unless a federal judge believes it is appropriate to investigate their possible use for spying on behalf of a foreign government.