At a hearing in front of the House Intelligence Committee on March 20, FBI Director James “Jim” Comey publicly confirmed that the agency is actively investigating President Donald Trump‘s alleged campaign ties to the Russian government.
Watch Comey confirm the investigation in the video above.
Comey said that the FBI is specifically looking into some associates who worked within Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign that may have been in contact with Moscow and officials within the Russian government. He said that Russia attempted to have an influence on the presidential election.
“The FBI, as part of our counterintelligence effort, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election,” he said.
Comey added that it’s not normal that the FBI confirms or denies such investigations, but the circumstances surrounding this specific one were of public interest.
The White House issued a statement via email shortly after Comey’s statement saying that as it stands, there is still “no evidence” of Russia’s ties to Trump’s campaign.
Nothing has changed. Senior Obama intelligence officials have gone on record to confirm there is NO EVIDENCE of Trump-Russia collusion and there is NO EVIDENCE of a Trump-Russia scandal.
Shortly before the hearing March 20, Trump once again took to Twitter to discredit the claims that his campaign had ties to Russia.
Those in question within Trump’s campaign include Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, Trump’s former adviser.
Flynn was paid almost $70,000 by companies from Russia before the election. He stepped down from his position February 14, after the controversy came to light.
According to the New York Times, Manafort reportedly had “repeated contact” with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election. Phone records and intercepted calls showed evidence supporting the claim, the New York Times reported.
Manafort hasn’t been charged with any crimes as a result and dismissed the claims in an interview.
This is absurd. I have no idea what this is referring to. I have never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers, and I have never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government or the Putin administration or any other issues under investigation today.
In addition, “several” of Trump’s associates are alleged to have done business in Russia.
The March 20 hearing on Capitol Hill opened with Rep. Devin Nunes (R-California) — the committee’s chairman — saying that Russia has a history of taking action against other countries. Nunes said that Russia’s “hostile acts take many forms aside from direct military assaults.”
Later on in the hearing, Comey said that he had “no information” that ties former President Barack Obama to wiretapping Trump, as the current president alleged in an early March tweet.
As recently as March 17, Trump stuck to the accusations that Obama was secretly listening in on conversations.
To watch a live stream of the hearing, click below:
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