FBI rejects White House appeals to deny Trump-Russia ties — report
Direct contact between administration and bureau violated limitations on communications pertaining to ongoing probes, CNN reports
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
The FBI recently rebuffed White House requests that it publicly reject media claims of contacts between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russian intelligence officials, CNN reported Thursday night.
CNN noted that by communicating with the FBI on the matter the White House violated longstanding restrictions on contacts regarding ongoing investigations.
A White House official told the news network that Chief of Staff Reince Priebus had asked FBI Director James Comey to speak with journalists to dispute the claims. Comey dismissed the request, as the matter remains under investigation.
Neither the White House nor the FBI would comment on the CNN report.
The New York Times last week reported that US intelligence agents intercepted calls showing that members of Trump’s campaign had repeated contacts with top Russian intelligence officials in the year preceding the November 8 presidential election.
The intercepted communications were uncovered around the same time intelligence agencies discovered evidence that Russia was trying to influence the election campaign by hacking into the Democratic National Convention, according to the report. The intelligence agencies sought to determine whether the Russians had received cooperation from the Trump campaign, with three of the officials interviewed saying no evidence pointing to such a scenario was found.
Trump has dismissed the reports as “nonsense.” He also accused the US intelligence services of having leaked information. “The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington?” he said in one tweet.
The Times of Israel Community.