Trump’s Russia links ‘investigated by FBI’
THE FBI secretly launched an investigation into whether Donald Trump was working on behalf of Russia while in office, according to a report that piles further pressure on the US president.
The decision to investigate Mr Trump directly was said to have been taken after he sacked James Comey, the FBI director leading the Russia election meddling investigation, in May 2017. FBI agents had been weigh- ing up the move for months but decided to act when Mr Trump linked the firing to the relief it would bring from the Russia inquiry, according to a report in The New York Times.
The move would have put the FBI in the delicate position of having to consider whether the US president himself posed a national security risk.
The investigation reportedly was only a few days old when Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel to take over the Russia investigation. The report came as Mr Trump refused to budge in his row with the Democrats over the wall along the Mexico border. The government shutdown entered the record books yesterday as the longest in US history.
Mr Trump said the Democrats needed to get back to work, adding that he was waiting in the White House for them to sign a deal to release funds for his wall and reopen government.
In a barrage of tweets sent early yesterday morning he also sent six messages hitting out at the Russia probe. Referencing The New York Times article, the president said FBI leaders had launched the investigation “for no reason and with no proof ”.
Mr Trump reportedly wanted to reference Mr Comey’s handling of the investigation in the letter announcing his dismissal. He also made the connection in a TV interview, saying “this Russia thing” was a reason he acted.
Those two factors convinced FBI leaders that they had to investigate whether Mr Trump was knowingly working for or unwittingly being influenced by Moscow, according to The New York Times.
Mr Mueller’s appointment as special counsel a week after Mr Comey’s firing meant that the FBI handed all aspects of its investigation over to his team.
Rudolph Giuliani, a lawyer for Mr Trump, played down the significance of the investigation, saying: “The fact that it goes back a year and a half and nothing came of it that showed a breach of national security means they found nothing.”
In a separate development, there was speculation that Ivanka Trump, the US president’s daughter and adviser, was in the running to head the World Bank. A Financial Times report said yesterday that Ms Trump’s name was one of a handful “floating around Washington” linked to the US nomination for the role after Jim Yong Kim, the current World Bank president, said he would be stepping down.