Trump’s Russia questions intensify
President declares allegation ‘insulting’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was seen by some as avoiding directly answering when asked whether he currently is or has ever worked for Russia after a published report said law enforcement officials, concerned about his behavior after he fired FBI Director James Comey in 2017, had begun investigating that possibility.
Mr. Trump said it was the “most insulting” question he’d ever been asked.
And at the same time, congressional Democrats Sunday pledged heightened scrutiny of Mr. Trump’s dealings with Russia.
The New York Times report Friday cited unnamed former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.
Mr. Trump responded to the story Saturday night during a telephone interview broadcast on Fox News Channel after host Jeanine Pirro, a personal friend, asked the Russia question.
“I think it’s the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked,” Mr. Trump said. “I think it’s the most
insulting article I’ve ever had written, and if you read the article you’ll see that they found absolutely nothing.”
Mr. Trump never answered Ms. Pirro directly but went on to assert that no president has taken a harder stance against Russia than he has.
“If you ask the folks in Russia, I’ve been tougher on Russia than anybody else, any other ... probably any other president, period, but certainly the last three or four presidents.”
In the Fox interview, Mr. Trump also dismissed a report by The Washington Post that cited unnamed current and former U.S. officials who cataloged the measures he had taken to keep details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin from other U.S. officials. In one instance, Mr. Trump took possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructed the linguist not to discuss what had happened with other administration officials.
White House aides later expressed regret that the president did not more clearly and forcefully deny being a Russian agent when asked by the usually friendly Fox News host, according to three White House aides and Republicans close to the White House. The three spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private conversations.
Mr. Trump’s claim was disputed Sunday by Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said almost all the sanctions on Russia arose not in the White House but in Congress, due to concerns by members of both parties about Moscow’s actions. Mr. Warner accused the White House of being very slow to put in place the penalties.
The Times reported that FBI agents and some top officials became suspicious of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign but didn’t open an investigation at that time because they weren’t sure how to approach such a sensitive probe.
Mr. Trump’s behavior in the days around Mr. Comey’s May 2017 firing helped trigger the counterintelligence part of the probe, according to the newspaper.
In the inquiry, counterintelligence investigators sought to evaluate if Mr. Trump was a potential threat to national security. They also sought to determine if Mr. Trump was deliberately working for Russia or had unintentionally been influenced by Moscow.
Mr. Trump tweeted early Saturday that the report showed that the FBI leadership “opened up an investigation on me, for no reason & with no proof” after he had fired Mr. Comey.
Robert Mueller took over the investigation when he was appointed special counsel soon after Mr. Comey’s firing. The investigation is looking into Russian election interference and whether Mr. Trump’s campaign coordinated with the Russians, as well as possible obstruction of justice by Mr. Trump. The Times says it’s unclear whether Mr. Mueller is still pursuing the counterintelligence angle.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said the report “may well suggest what it was that helped start this investigation in the first place.” He and other Democratic senators said this report and others within the past week questioning Mr. Trump’s behavior toward Russia give new urgency to the need for the Mueller investigation to be allowed to run its course.
In the Fox News interview, when Mr. Trump questioned why the newspaper made such a “big deal” out of his discussions with Mr. Putin in Helsinki last summer, he noted that “[a]nybody could have listened to that meeting, that meeting is up for grabs.”
On Sunday, congressional Democrats said the steps Mr. Trump took to keep his conversations secret brought forth uncomfortable questions about the relations between the two men and why the American president echoed some of Mr. Putin’s positions.
Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who now leads the Intelligence Committee as part of the new Democratic House majority, implored his Republican colleagues Sunday to support his effort to obtain notes or testimony from the interpreter in one of the private meetings between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin.
“Will they join us now?” Mr. Schiff wrote on Twitter. “Shouldn’t we find out whether our president is really putting ‘America first?’”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday that any notion the president was a threat to American security “is absolutely ludicrous.”