UPDATE - Israel planted devices to spy on Trump - report

UPDATES WITH EDITS AND DETAILS THROUGHOUT; UPDATES DECK

By Vakkas Dogantekin and Michael Hernandez

ANKARA (AA) - Israel reportedly planted StingRay surveillance devices near the White House in an attempt to capture President Donald Trump's cellular telephone activity.

An investigation by the FBI and other U.S. agencies concluded that Israel was responsible from the act, Politico reported citing three former U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

“It was pretty clear that the Israelis were responsible,” one U.S. official told the news outlet on condition of anonymity.

A spokesperson from the Israeli embassy in the U.S. immediately denied the allegations and called them ''absolute nonsense".

''Israel doesn’t conduct espionage operations in the United States, period," Elad Strohmayer told Politico.

The Trump administration has yet to formally comment.

The StingRay devices, Politico reported, were discovered near the White House and other "sensitive locations" in the nation's capital. They mimic cell towers in a bid to fool cellular telephones into passing on their location and other identifying information, as well as call and data information.

An anonymous official said U.S. agencies concluded following a sweeping forensic analysis that the devices were likely intended to spy on the president. The assessment was made within the past two years, but a former senior intelligence official told Politico that the Trump administration has not taken any action against Israel, nor privately scolded its leaders, following the conclusion.

“The reaction ... was very different than it would have been in the last administration,” the official cited by Politico said. “With the current administration, there are a different set of calculations in regard to addressing this.”

“I’m not aware of any accountability at all,” the official added.

StingRay surveillance devices are regularly used by police forces, and Vice News pegged their estimated cost at upwards of $150,000 each.