Govt claims FBI junked reports on Russian ties
Washington, Feb. 27: The White House made a messy attempt on Sunday to control public perceptions of a widening scandal over alleged contacts between aides to Donald Trump and Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 election, alleging that the FBI had dismissed reports of such links.
The scandal has shown little sign of coming under control with a Republican Congressman calling for an independent inquiry, multiple congressional committees pursuing investigations and Mr Trump escalating a war with the media in an apparent attempt at distraction.
While the White House has, by its own clumsy admission, been working behind the scenes to try to manage the conduct of Congress and intelligence agencies in the scandal, those efforts have so far backfired.
Contacts between the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and top FBI officials have come in for particular criticism as a violation of a necessary line separating the White House from justice department investigations with potential targets inside the administration.
On Sunday, a Trump spokeswoman once again tested that line, saying the FBI had dismissed allegations of inappropriate Trump-Russia ties as
“BS” — bullshit, according to The Guardian. “The FBI has already said this story is BS,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on ABC’s This Week. “Those were their words, so I apologise to my mom. But literally those are the words of the FBI, that the story is BS.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has, in fact, made no public comment on its investigation into alleged contact between Trump associates and Russian operatives. The labelling of the story as “BS” has been attributed to the FBI’s deputy director, Andrew McCabe, by anonymous administration officials.
The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, has confirmed that Mr Priebus asked top FBI officials to publicly debunk the matter, which they declined to do. Under fire, Mr Trump has attacked the intelligence community, warning that the sources of the leaks that fed the news reports would be punished.