FBI CHIEF CONFIRMS INVESTIGATION INTO TRUMP-RUSSIA TIES
‘ THEY WANTED TO HURT OUR DEMOCRACY, HURT HER AND HELP HIM’
FBI Director James Comey dealt President Donald Trump a stinging rebuke on Monday at a time of acute political vulnerability for the White House.
In his opening statement before the House Intelligence Committee, Comey confirmed that the FBI is investigating Russia’s interference in the presidential election, and whether any of Trump’s associates collaborated with Vladimir Putin’s government.
But Comey also said that the president’s charge his predecessor had wiretapped him was false. Working systematically, tweet by explosive tweet, under questioning from lawmakers Comey repeatedly insisted there was “no evidence” to substantiate Trump’s March 4 claims.
Nothing to prove Barack Obama had ordered phones tapped at Trump Tower. Nothing to indicate Obama had somehow subverted Nixon-era safeguards enacted to prevent abuses of power and protect Americans from top-secret foreign electronic surveillance programs. No reason to conclude Obama had violated the rules of a decades-old intelligence alliance and solicited a foreign ally to carry out the spying.
“I’m not going to try and characterize the tweets themselves,” Comey said. “All I can tell you is we have no information that supports them.”
Taken in sum, the same FBI director who boosted Trump’s political fortunes in the closing days of the presidential campaign by acknowledging his agency had reopened an investigation into rival Hillary Clinton’s use of private email dealt the president one of the worst political blows of his young administration. The damage comes at perhaps the worst possible time.
Come y’ s testimony opened a crucial week for the White House. Senators have begun weighing the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and members of the House are set to vote on Trump’s preferred plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. That vote is certain to be close, and vulnerable House Republicans, already skittish about a plan that manages to both institutionalize government involvement while also risking the coverage of their constituents, are certain to be taking stock of Trump’s political capital.
A Gallup poll Sunday showed Trump’s approval at 37 per cent, lower than Obama’s at any point in his presidency. But the White House and Republicans have reason not to panic, yet.
For one, Gorsuch seems likely to be confirmed, barring a dramatic misstep. That will provide the president a political win.
And while Comey’s testimony is certain to give fodder to Trump’s critics, White House aides were ebullient after House intelligence committee chair Devin Nunes, a Republican, said his panel hadn’t seen evidence to indicate collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. “There is a big grey cloud that you’ve now put over people who have very important work to do,” Nunes told Comey at the close of the hearing.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer highlighted that former acting CIA chief Michael Morrell and former director of national intelligence James Clapper have taken the same stance, saying they had seen no evidence of Trump and the Russians working together.
“It’s clear that nothing has changed,” Spicer told reporters. “Senior Obama intelligence officials have gone on record to confirm that there is no evidence of a Trump-Russia collusion.”
The president tweeted ahead of Comey’s testimony that allegations he’s tied to the Russians are “FAKE NEWS and everyone knows it!”
“The Democrats made up and pushed the Russian story as an excuse for running a terrible campaign,” he continued.
Some Republicans on the committee suggested Clinton’s campaign may have collaborated with Russians. Comey bluntly rejected that notion. He said Putin’s goal was to undermine the former secretary of state’s candidacy while aiding Trump’s, as U. S. intelligence agencies concluded in January.
“They wanted to hurt our democracy, hurt her and help him,” Comey said. “Putin hated Secretary Clinton so much that the flip side of that coin was that he had a clear preference for the person running against the person he hated so much.”