White House Rejects Report on Snooping of Trump’s Phone Calls

(Bloomberg) -- The White House said a New York Times article reporting that American spy agencies had detected Russian and Chinese eavesdropping on phone calls placed by President Donald Trump on one of his iPhones included “inaccurate information.”

“He has one official government iPhone,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement Thursday. “This phone security follows industry best practices and is closely managed under government supervision in conjunction with recommendations from industry partners.”

Gidley also said that the Times was incorrect when it reported that the president had three mobile phones: two that had been altered to limit their vulnerabilities, and a personal phone Trump was said to prefer because he could store his contacts in it.

The president's phone “is rotated on a regular basis and is constantly monitored for any security vulnerabilities and attacks, in accordance with recommendations from the intelligence community,” Gidley added.

The statement from the White House did not address whether the intelligence community had expressed concerns to the president that his phone conversations had been monitored.

China, Russia Eavesdropping on Trump's IPhone Calls, NYT Says

Trump denied the report himself earlier Thursday in a tweet -- sent from his iPhone -- but did not identify specific inaccuracies.

“The so-called experts on Trump over at the New York Times wrote a long and boring article on my cellphone usage that is so incorrect I do not have time here to correct it,” he said. “I only use Government Phones, and have only one seldom used government cell phone. Story is soooo wrong!”

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, John Harney, Colin Keatinge

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