- Israel is believed by US intelligence to be responsible for planting surveillance devices near the White House in a bid to spy on US President Donald Trump, Politico reported Thursday.
- The Trump administration has reportedly not confronted Israel following the discovery of surveillance devices planted around Washington DC.
- In a statement, the office of the Israeli embassy in the US denied the country conducts any espionage operations within the US.
US intelligence services think Israel is responsible for planting mobile phone surveillance devices near the White House, and in other sensitive locations in Washington DC, to spy on President Donald Trump, Politico reported on Thursday.
The tiny surveillance devices were found in locations across the US capital, and were planted in an attempt to access communications between Trump and allies and aides, three former US officials told the site.
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security reportedly discovered the devices at some point over the last two years and told the Trump administration, with Israel believed to have most likely been responsible.
Politico reports that they were StingRays, a type of device capable of capturing texts, emails, phone calls, and location data from nearby mobile phones by tricking the phones into thinking it is communicating with a real cell tower.
It is not clear whether the devices successfully gathered any sensitive information.
Read the article by Tom Porter on Business Insider Australia.