FBI director confirms agency is investigating coordination between Trump campaign and Russia during election

(CNN)FBI Director James Comey said for the first time Monday that the bureau is investigating whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow while Russia was interfering in the presidential election.

Comey also delivered an implicit rebuke to Fake President Trump, saying that he had "no information" to support claims by the President that he was wiretapped on the orders of predecessor Barack Obama.

In a dramatic hearing before the House Intelligence Committee, Comey, once again finding himself at the epicenter of a political storm, also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a clear preference for whom he wanted to see as the next president -- and it was not Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Comey's comments represented his most explicit intervention yet in the controversy over what US intelligence agencies have assessed was a Russian attempt to disrupt the election -- and a string of counter-claims against the previous administration leveled by Trump himself.

Comey on Monday publicly confirmed for the first time that his agency is investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign and whether any crimes may have been committed during last year's election campaign as part of a wider probe into the hacking of Democratic servers and the Clinton campaign.

"That includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts," Comey said in his opening statement to the committee.

The hearing, which also featured testimony from National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers saw Democrats highlight publicly available information about links between Trump associates and Russia. Republicans tried to turn the hearing into leaks that led to the resignation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Comey testified that US intelligence agencies were agreed that Russia's aim evolved into an effort during the election to aid Trump over Clinton.

"They wanted to hurt our democracy, hurt her, help him. I think all three we were confident in at least as early as December," Comey said.

Comey also said he had no information to support claims by Trump that he was wiretapped by Obama -- made in a series of explosive tweets two weeks ago.

"I have no information that supports those tweets," Comey told the committee, adding that the Justice Department, along with the FBI, had no information to support the allegations. Comey said that no president could order a wiretapping operation against a specific American citizen.

Tommy Monk wrote:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/03/trey-gowdy-reminds-comey-obama-officials-leaking-trump-face-10-years-prison-video/

Ben Reilly wrote:

(CNN)FBI Director James Comey said for the first time Monday that the bureau is investigating whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow while Russia was interfering in the presidential election.

Comey also delivered an implicit rebuke to Fake President Trump, saying that he had "no information" to support claims by the President that he was wiretapped on the orders of predecessor Barack Obama.

In a dramatic hearing before the House Intelligence Committee, Comey, once again finding himself at the epicenter of a political storm, also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a clear preference for whom he wanted to see as the next president -- and it was not Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Comey's comments represented his most explicit intervention yet in the controversy over what US intelligence agencies have assessed was a Russian attempt to disrupt the election -- and a string of counter-claims against the previous administration leveled by Trump himself.

Comey on Monday publicly confirmed for the first time that his agency is investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign and whether any crimes may have been committed during last year's election campaign as part of a wider probe into the hacking of Democratic servers and the Clinton campaign.

"That includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts," Comey said in his opening statement to the committee.

The hearing, which also featured testimony from National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers saw Democrats highlight publicly available information about links between Trump associates and Russia. Republicans tried to turn the hearing into leaks that led to the resignation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Comey testified that US intelligence agencies were agreed that Russia's aim evolved into an effort during the election to aid Trump over Clinton.

"They wanted to hurt our democracy, hurt her, help him. I think all three we were confident in at least as early as December," Comey said.

Comey also said he had no information to support claims by Trump that he was wiretapped by Obama -- made in a series of explosive tweets two weeks ago.

"I have no information that supports those tweets," Comey told the committee, adding that the Justice Department, along with the FBI, had no information to support the allegations. Comey said that no president could order a wiretapping operation against a specific American citizen.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/20/politics/comey-hearing-russia-wiretapping/index.html

And just for fun, the Gallup daily tracking poll has Trump's approval rating at a dismal 39 percent, with a whopping 55 percent disapproval rating. If Trump can't improve that, there is no reason for Congressional Republicans to stand by him.

Ben Reilly wrote:

Tommy Monk wrote:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/03/trey-gowdy-reminds-comey-obama-officials-leaking-trump-face-10-years-prison-video/

If I had information that my nation's sovereignty was threatened by the occupant of the White House himself, I'd go to prison for life to keep my country self-deterministic.

Tommy Monk wrote:

Still no evidence...


Part of the democrat lies and spin campaign...

The White House was knocked on the defensive Monday ahead of its biggest week yet on Capitol Hill as FBI Director James Comey confirmed the existence of an active investigation into Russia’s meddling in the presidential election, including whether there was any coordination with now-Fake President Trump’s team.

The dramatic revelation, made at a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee, dragged the Trump administration yet again back into uncomfortable territory just as it had hoped to highlight the smooth rollout of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, who began his confirmation hearings across the Capitol on Monday.

In another blow to Trump, Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers also publicly refuted his unsubstantiated claims on Twitter that President Barack Obama had ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower phones. The leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees had said last week that Trump’s allegations were untrue.

“I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI,” Comey said.

The White House scrambled to contain the fallout, deploying two simultaneous war rooms, according to two people familiar with the arrangement, one in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to monitor the Comey hearing and another in the Senate offices to keep tabs on Gorsuch.

The Devil, You Know wrote:

Ben Reilly wrote:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/20/politics/comey-hearing-russia-wiretapping/index.html

And just for fun, the Gallup daily tracking poll has Trump's approval rating at a dismal 39 percent, with a whopping 55 percent disapproval rating. If Trump can't improve that, there is no reason for Congressional Republicans to stand by him.

the headline you used is fake.
the headline gives the impression that there is collusion, where as the article says it is looking to see if there is any facts on collusion. How very misleading and dare one say FAKE.

THE public inquiry into Donald Trump’s possible links to Russian meddling in the US election has only just begun, but in some quarters, the verdict is already in.

“You would have to say this is the worst and most perilous day of Donald Trump’s young Presidency,” CNN’s political analyst Gloria Borger concluded within hours of the House Intelligence hearings starting overnight.

Among the bombshells that have left Trump’s White House scrambling for answers are the suggestions his campaign staff colluded with the Russian government to win the November election as well as the FBI totally discrediting Trump’s allegation that former president Barack Obama wiretapped his phone.

“In this hearing over the last bunch of hours we have seen the director of the FBI rebut Donald Trump directly,” Borger said. “They are going to have a hard time figuring out how to handle it.”

Other media figures echoed the sentiment that Trump had suffered an awful political blow.

Meanwhile, a former Republican congressman has given his own damning assessment of the reality star-turned leader of the free world: Donald Trump isn’t “intellectually qualified to be President of the United States.”

“He does not practice in details, nor understands the finer points of domestic or foreign policy,” David Jolly told CNN.

“When he throws out a wiretap charge, what does that mean? We know he’s lying about that, but he doesn’t understand what a FISA [Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act] court is. He doesn’t understand that he just made an allegation of a felony, he doesn’t understand that he’s crippling the United States on a world stage. That speaks to more than credibility, that speaks to intellect.”

The American media is having a field day with the hearings, while one commentator has likened the effect of “Trumpism” on the country to a form of “psychosis.”


“Trumpism as a social-psychological phenomenon has aspects reminiscent of psychosis, in that it entails a systematic — and it seems likely intentional — attack on our relation to reality,” Joel Whitebook wrote in The New York Times.

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/current-affairs/journalist-says-donald-trump-will-fail-as-president/news-story/e683cc58577f058dc319d9b18cbaf097

WHITE House press secretary Sean Spicer has given what has been described as a “nonsensical” reply to the FBI’s claims that there is no evidence former President Obama ordered surveillance against Donald Trump.

Despite the FBI insisting there was no evidence of wire tapping, and President Trump’s failing to provide any himself, Spicer made a “series of confounding arguments” just hours after the FBI’s groundbreaking statement, according to the Associated Press.

The Washington Post described Spicer’s comments as “nonsensical” and his world being Trump’s spokesman as “less than wonderful”. It comes as media begin to reflect on his credibility in the face of consistently “confusing” statements.

The FBI not only rebuked Trump’s claims about Obama, Director James Comey said the bureau would investigate whether there was any co-ordination between Russia and the now president during his campaign.

Spicer was asked by a reporter if Trump was “prepared to withdraw that accusation (against Obama) and apologise”, but he refused to back down and indicated there would be no “sorry”, telling reporters investigations were “still ongoing” and suggested the public wasn’t receiving the full story.

Again, Flynn texted the ambassador and the two spoke on the phone. The exact details of that call are now at the centre of a national security scandal that cost Mr Flynn his job.

Overnight, US Fake President Trump blasted “fake news media” on Twitter for “going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred”. He fumed at the leaks coming out of Washington that have damaged his White House and led to the sacking of a trusted adviser just one month into the job.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/president-trump-michael-flynn-and-russia-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-scandal-consuming-washington/news-story/1685cb2e71793b8ae91cf39204d2c6c4

“The FBI is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. That includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any co-ordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts,” Mr Comey said.

“As with any investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed.

“I cannot say more about what we are doing and whose conduct we are examining,” he said, adding that the FBI had briefed House committee leaders in a classified setting about the investigation.

“The FBI is very careful in how we handle information about our cases and the people we are investigating.”

“Please don’t draw any conclusions from the fact I may not be able to comment,” he said.

Even a close ally of Mr. Trump, Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California and the House Intelligence Committee chairman, conceded that “a gray cloud” of suspicion now hung over the White House by the end of the day’s hearings.

Tommy Monk wrote:

Still no evidence...

Part of the democrat lies and spin campaign...

Original Quill wrote:

Tommy Monk wrote:

Still no evidence...

Part of the democrat lies and spin campaign...

There are two things that Russia wants out of the US: 1) end sanctions, so it can begin to market its oil; and 2) disrupt NATO, leaving Europe open and available to Russia again.

You've seen how Trump rudely denied any show of friendship to Teresa May and Angela Merkel in the past month.  Now we hear that Secretary of State Tillerson is to snub the NATO meeting in Brussels next month, and rather be heading to Moscow.

The other shoe will drop when Trump announces the end of sanctions on oil.  Just wait for it.  It's happening right beneath your nose.

Tommy Monk wrote:Still no evidence ..

veya_victaous wrote:There is evidence of Trump Committing Defamation, he tweeted it to the world

and there was evidence and admission by 2 of Trumps people already, causing their resignation Trump and cronies covered for them Until they were unable to do so BECAUSE the evidence was found and made public.

Again, Flynn texted the ambassador and the two spoke on the phone. The exact details of that call are now at the centre of a national security scandal that cost Mr Flynn his job.

Overnight, US Fake President Trump blasted “fake news media” on Twitter for “going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred”. He fumed at the leaks coming out of Washington that have damaged his White House and led to the sacking of a trusted adviser just one month into the job.

http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/president-trump-michael-flynn-and-russia-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-scandal-consuming-washington/news-story/1685cb2e71793b8ae91cf39204d2c6c4

That was over a month ago and now after preliminary investigations there is a full scale investigation into the entire Trump team.

“The FBI is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. That includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any co-ordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts,” Mr Comey said.

“As with any investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed.

“I cannot say more about what we are doing and whose conduct we are examining,” he said, adding that the FBI had briefed House committee leaders in a classified setting about the investigation.

“The FBI is very careful in how we handle information about our cases and the people we are investigating.”

“Please don’t draw any conclusions from the fact I may not be able to comment,” he said.

Tommy Monk wrote:A load of nothing...

Tommy Monk wrote:It's a big circle Jerk of nothingness...

Tommy Monk wrote:

Waffle...

New York Times wrote:All the President’s Lies

David Leonhardt MARCH 20, 2017

The ninth week of Donald Trump’s presidency began with the F.B.I. director calling him a liar.

The director, the very complicated James Comey, didn’t use the L-word in his congressional testimony Monday. Comey serves at the pleasure of the president, after all. But his meaning was clear as could be. Trump has repeatedly accused Barack Obama of wiretapping his phones, and Comey explained there is “no information that supports” the claim.

I’ve previously argued that not every untruth deserves to be branded with the L-word, because it implies intent and somebody can state an untruth without doing so knowingly. George W. Bush didn’t lie when he said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and Obama didn’t lie when he said people who liked their current health insurance could keep it. They made careless statements that proved false (and they deserved much of the criticism they got).

But the current president of the United States lies. He lies in ways that no American politician ever has before. He has lied about — among many other things — Obama’s birthplace, John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Sept. 11, the Iraq War, ISIS, NATO, military veterans, Mexican immigrants, Muslim immigrants, anti-Semitic attacks, the unemployment rate, the murder rate, the Electoral College, voter fraud and his groping of women.

He tells so many untruths that it’s time to leave behind the textual parsing over which are unwitting and which are deliberate — as well as the condescending notion that most of Trump’s supporters enjoy his lies.


James Comey testifying on Capitol Hill on Monday.

Trump sets out to deceive people. As he has put it, “I play to people’s fantasies.”

Caveat emptor: When Donald Trump says something happened, it should not change anyone’s estimation of whether the event actually happened. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. His claim doesn’t change the odds.

Which brings us to Russia.

Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign was an attack on the United States. It’s the kind of national-security matter that a president and members of Congress swear to treat with utmost seriousness when they take the oath of office. Yet now it has become the subject of an escalating series of lies by the president and the people who work for him.

As Comey was acknowledging on Monday that the F.B.I. was investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, Trump was lying about it. From both his personal Twitter account and the White House account, he told untruths.

A few hours later, his press secretary, Sean Spicer, went before the cameras and lied about the closeness between Trump and various aides who have documented Russian ties. Do you remember Paul Manafort, the chairman of Trump’s campaign, who ran the crucial delegate-counting operation? Spicer said Manafort had a “very limited role” in said campaign.

The big question now is not what Trump and the White House are saying about the Russia story. They will evidently say anything.

The questions are what really happened and who can uncover the truth.

PRIVACY POLICY

The House of Representatives, unfortunately, will not be doing so. I was most saddened during Comey’s testimony not by the White House’s response, which I’ve come to expect, but by the Republican House members questioning him. They are members of a branch of government that the Constitution holds as equal to the presidency, but they acted like Trump staff members, decrying leaks about Russia’s attack rather than the attack itself. The Watergate equivalent is claiming that Deep Throat was worse than Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Nixon.

It fell to Adam Schiff, a Democratic representative from Southern California, to lay out the suspicious ties between Trump and Russia (while also hinting he couldn’t describe some classified details). Schiff did so in a calm, nine-minute monologue that’s worth watching. He walked through pro-Putin payments to Michael Flynn and through another Trump’s aide’s advance notice of John Podesta’s hacked email and through the mysterious struggle over the Republican Party platform on Ukraine.

“Is it possible that all of these events and reports are completely unrelated, and nothing more than an entirely unhappy coincidence? Yes, it is possible,” Schiff said. “But it is also possible, maybe more than possible, that they are not coincidental, not disconnected and not unrelated, and that the Russians used the same techniques to corrupt U.S. persons that they have employed in Europe and elsewhere. We simply don’t know, not yet, and we owe it to the country to find out.”

Comey, as much as liberals may loathe him for his 2016 bungling, seems to be one of the few public officials with the ability and willingness to pursue the truth. I dearly hope that Republican members of the Senate are patriotic enough to do so as well.

Our president is a liar, and we need to find out how serious his latest lies are.

Tommy Monk wrote:

"...The ninth week of Donald Trump’s presidency began with the F.B.I. director calling him a liar.

The director, the very complicated James Comey, didn’t use the L-word in his congressional testimony Monday..."

Headline immediately contradicted in the next sentence...

Oh dear!

Tommy Monk wrote:No... it's just misleading headline... fake news...!

Tommy Monk wrote:There was a newspaper report that claimed wire tap evidence and transcript... although no evidence has been presented to back up this claim, the left wing twats keep pushing this as true...

Then when trump says he was wire tapped, as the left eing twats claim... the left wing twats then try to claim this is a lie...

As usual the left wing twats want to have it both ways...