FBI thumps Trump

Confirms Russian probe and refutes President’s wire-tapping claims

THE FBI is investigating whether Donald Trump’s associates co-ordinated with Russian officials in an effort to sway the 2016 presidential election, FBI director James Comey said yesterday.

The admission at a Congressional hearing was an extraordinary confirmation of a probe the President has refused to acknowledge, dismissed as fake news and blamed on Democrats.

During a five-hour session, Mr Comey also refuted Mr Trump’s claim that his predecessor Barack Obama had wire-tapped his New York skyscraper, an assertion that has frustrated fellow Republicans who say they’ve seen no evidence to support it.

The revelation of the investigation of possible collusion with Russians, and the first public confirmation of the wider probe, came in a remarkable hearing by one branch of government examining allegations against another branch.

Mr Comey refused to offer details on the scope or timeline for the investigation, which could dog the White House for months, if not years.

The director would not say whether the probe had turned up evidence that Trump associates may have schemed with Russians during the election campaign in order to defeat Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton.

“I can promise you we will follow the facts wherever they lead,” the FBI boss said.

Mr Comey, for the first time, put himself publicly at odds with the President by contradicting a series of recent tweets from Mr Trump that asserted his phones had been ordered tapped by President Barack Obama during the campaign.

“With respect to the President’s tweets about alleged wire-tapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI,” Mr Comey said.

The same lack of infor- mation was true, he added, of the Justice Department.

His confirmation of the Russia-links investigation was striking given the FBI’s historic reluctance to discuss its work. But Mr Comey said the intense public interest surrounding the matter – and permission from the Justice Department – made it appropriate to do so.

Mr Comey said the collusion inquiry began last July as part of a broader probe into Russian meddling in American politics.