Washington, March 18 (RHC-TheGuardian) – U.S. President Donald Trump has refused to back down in the face of British outrage at White House’s repetition of an unsubstantiated claim that British intelligence had spied on him during the presidential campaign.

Asked about the claim during a joint press conference with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, Trump said the statement had just quoted something said on Fox News. “We said nothing,” argued Trump. “All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television.”

The US president added: “You shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox.”

Fox News distanced itself on Friday from the original claim of British eavesdropping made by its “senior judicial analyst”, Andrew Napolitano, a former judge.

Shephard Smith, a Fox News anchor, said that the conservative network could not confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary, adding “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now President of the United States was surveilled at any time, in any way.”

The comments came after the White House scrambled to limit the damage to transatlantic relations caused by White House spokesperson Sean Spicer’s repetition of the claim during his regular White House press briefing on Thursday.