Comey Confirms FBI Investigating Possible Russia Interference in Election
NSA Director Mike Rogers will join Comey in the hearing.
FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers addressed the House Intelligence Committee today about allegations of Russian interference with our presidential election and President Donald Trump’s accusations that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower.
Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) told Fox News on Sunday that the wiretap never happened. Top Democrat Adam Schiff expects “Comey to rebut the president’s claim” at the hearing.
Russian Interference
Panels have concluded that no evidence shows “that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia” during the election.
1. What did Russia do to interfere in 2016 and did anyone from campaigns collude?
2. Was any U.S. person improperly surveilled?
3. Leaks!— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) March 20, 2017
FBI Director James Comey
Comey said the FBI is investigating into possible Russian interference with the election. Usually, the FBI cannot comment on ongoing investigations, but he received permission to tell the Committee. Rep. Conaway asking Comey when Putin decided to favor Trump. Well, Comey explains that Vladimir Putin hated Hillary Clinton so much that he would have chosen her opponent.
Later, Nunes asked the two men if Russia preferred Romney or McCain over Obama, but neither could comment on those races because they didn’t investigate it:
https://twitter.com/jbarro/status/843860900364849153
He also said that he cannot comment on everything and may not be able to answer all questions. For example, Comey cannot comment on particular people when asked about Manafort and Roger Stone. Comey also did not find evidence of vote changes.
Comey confirms the FBI started the investigation in July. All he can tell the committee is what they’re investigating: Collusion between Trump campaign and the Russians. This is an excellent point:
At time of pivotal Comey letter on Clinton email, FBI had been investigating Trump campaign links to Russia for three months.
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) March 20, 2017
No timeline when the investigation will end.
Rep. Ros-Lehtinen asked about Russia’s approach to this election, which Comey confirmed they were noisy. They did not try to hide what they were doing. It’s almost like they wanted to alert authorities to force them to tell us American people in order to freak us out and scare the public.
Comey also tells Rep. Ros-Lehtinen that he wouldn’t be surprised if they come back in 2020 and other elections in the future.
NSA Director Mike Rogers
Rogers said that the NSA has not changed its assessment on Russian interference from January. That report found that Russia did launch a campaign, but it did not change the election outcome. Rogers said NSA found no evidence of vote changes and that no one stole information from the RNC or the Trump campaign.
Rogers also said he will not be able to talk about everything since its classified.
Wiretap of Trump Tower
As stated above, both Nunes and Schiff could not find evidence of wiretapping on the Trump Tower. Nunes said in his opening statement the wiretap didn’t exist, but other forms of surveillance possibly existed.
FBI Director James Comey
Comey has no information to support Trump’s tweets that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower and that no president can order a wiretap. He also cannot comment on FISA.
Gowdy asked Comey if members of the WH could unmask those in investigations. He even asked if Susan Rice or Ben Rhodes could do this. Comey said they could. However, he cannot comment on specific people.
Rep. Turner has asked Comey about what opens an investigation. Comey said traveling to foreign countries or photographs with foreign leaders is not enough to open one. But Turner also asks if it’s a crime to lie to a reporter about classified information and Comey said no. However, it puts the IC in a sticky situation because they cannot publicly counter the reports. He also told Turner that those who think they know secrets, but don’t actually know anything, will leak information:
Comey: "I've read a lot of stuff, especially in the last few months, that's just wrong." But can't say anything about it.
— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) March 20, 2017
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D) asks Comey if WH staffers could potentially be source of some leaks. Comey says sure, it's possible.
— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) March 20, 2017
NSA Director Mike Rogers
Rogers denies that British intelligence helped wiretap Trump Tower.
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Comments
30 minutes of nothing!!
Amazing that agencies that can never be caught doing any nefarious things, left no evidence behind that could be found by the people that make sure they left no tracks.
Surely the question ISNT whether Comey knows something went on but whether the FBI KNEW something went on?
Comey saying he isn’t aware of wiretapping is a very different beast to the FBI knowing about it.
Mailman
Comey can answer for the FBI, not the other intelligence agencies.
now that stupid twit wants us to be at war!!!!!!!
So it’s basically asking the spooks if they want to admit to anything. Answer….dindonutin.
If I get accused of something I’d love to be able to be the only witness against myself.
I think Comey wants to go down in history as the orneriest FBI director since Hoover. For him to say that due to the extraodinary situation, he will say that the FBI is investigating Trump’s team for collusion with the Russian election meddling. Wow! What an innocent statement! We can now sit back and watch the msm run with this new revelation and hear every Demorat say that Trump is under investigating for collusion with the Russians. And according to Comey this investigation has no end and if it does he isn’t going to tell anyone that it ended.
I guess Mark Finkelstein has his dance card all filled up for the next 24 or 48 hours as CNN and MSNBC aggressively spin the NSA position, “That report found that Russia did launch a campaign, but it did not change the election outcome.” And broadcast news outlets will probably join in to minimize or flip that statement somehow.
Outside of doubling down on identity politics in order to improve their election results, the Democrats seem stuck on “illegitimate president” as their only other message.
“Mr. Director, could you confirm that the FBI has been involved in the still ongoing investigation of the alleged theft of NE Patriot quarterback Tom Brady’s jersey, the one he wore in Superbowl LI?”
Comey: Yes.”
“Mr. Director, are you aware that Mr. Brady’s jersey was found in what was reported to be a foreign country yesterday?”
Comey: “So I read.”
“Mr. Director, is it not true that President Putin “palmed” NE Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s Super Bowl ring from a previous Super Bowl Championship during an American tour a few years ago?”
Comey: “WAT?”
“Mr. Director, are you aware that Tom Brady and Bill Bellichick endorsed now President Donald Trump in October 2016?”
Comey: “WAT?”
“No more questions. I yield the floor to the ranking committee member.”
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/heres-how-vladimir-putin-stole-a-super-bowl-ring-from-the-patriots-robert-kraft/
I would think a line of questioning that brings up specific news articles and statements would be more productive.
Mr. Director, the New York Times ran a front page story on ____ stating that the Trump campaign was wiretapped by the FBI. Can you say that story was incorrect?
Mr. Director, Representative ___ made a statement on the House floor that transcripts from Trump campaign staff were available on ___, 2016 revealing conversations with known Russian intelligence agents. Did the FBI intercept any telephone conversations from the Trump campaign that could possibly make this assertation true?
They went round and round on exactly that point, in several different contexts. No, he’s not going to play Marco Polo with our national intelligence secrets. In my opinion, this was the only call he could make.
Comey has come to typify the corrupt chaos in our government since the nation was victimized by the Obama and the democrat party.
He’s got to go. The longer his presence, the more damage done to the FBI.
We are under siege by a corrupt, sleazy, establishment infesting both political parties. Not a patriot among them. Though many traitors are among them.
Donald Trump is our George Washington. The GOPe is our Benedict Arnold.
WE are Trump. An attack on him is an attack on us.
How many times does the intelligence community need to tell these idiots that there was no collusion between Trump and Russia?
How many times have we done the same things to other countries?
I am sorry I love my country but I know that my country is in no way able to claim a moral high ground in election interference.
Comey has been investigating alleged ties between Trump and Russia for over 6 months but doesn’t use one of the most obvious means of gaining intelligence, a tap on phone lines in Trump Tower? That doesn’t pass the smell test.
I’m suspecting some lawyerly parsing of words here. Note that Comey never simply says “the FBI didn’t wiretap Trump Tower.” Instead he says “I have no information to support Trump’s tweets that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower”. That’s a rather unncessary bit of circumlocution, unless his purpose is to be evasive. Obama, of course, would not have tapped Trump tower himself, he would have ordered somebody else to do it.
Comey is simply lying when he says “no president can order a wiretap.” It is true that he cannot do so on his own authority, but any President can ask his AG to task a staff lawyer to request a warrant for a wiretap.
Comey should have been fired when Trump came into office. The whole ridiculous Russian investigation of collusion was just Comey protecting his job. If Trump fired him the Dems would scream it’s because of the investigation. Comey has proved to be incompetent. He protected Clinton and the people around her. If he had the slightest bit of evidence against Trump his people would have leaked it.
I don’t know if anyone has ever asked this question but what if the Trump campaign was in contact with Russians over e mail releases …. Not the hacking but the releasing of the e mails …. I don’t see what if any laws were broke … The DNC media etc are not the government
The language used by all of these officials who were in place during the Obama administration is critical to understanding exactly what is going on here.
The ONLY portion of the Trump claim, that Obama tapped his communications in Trump tower, that is being refuted is the inferrence that Obama directly ordered it.
No one, in a position of authority, has categorically denied that Trump’s communications were subject to surveillance. This is largely due to the fact that virtually ALL electronic communication is being monitored continually, in this country.
No one in a position of authority has directly stated that no FISA warrant requests were made or, if they were, if any were granted. While releasing the information that a request was made or a warrant granted might well be covered by FISA security laws, verifying that one was not issued or that such a request was made, is another story. And, no one has said that one was not issued. Even Clapper stated only that HE had no direct knowledge that one was applied for or issued.
No official has ever addressed how the Flynn intercept was accomplished. It has been left to the public to assume that it was accomplished as a result of surveillance on the Russian ambassador. But, this was never confirmed nor denied. Now, as it would be assumed that the the ambassador of any country, particularly one representing a semi-hostile nation, would be under intelligence surveillance, releasing this information would hardly be damaging to national security interests, at this point. However, if the intercept resulted from an official surveillance of communications originating in Trump Tower, this would be far more damaging.
The real story here is the leaks involving this information. Not because they were a gross violation of the law, but because they are the surest and easiest route to determining if Trump was under communication surveillance and if it was legal. If the information was accurate, and this should not be difficult to determine as it was rather specific, then by identifying the source of the leaks and backtracking, it is a simple matter to determine under what circumstances this information was obtained. But, the FBI does not seem to be interested in the leaking of information in violation of US law. So, one has to ask, why the disinterest? Perhaps it is because the FBI knows exactly how this information was obtained and does not wish to disclose that.
This is all for show. Comey clearly showed that he was a pure political hack when he declared that no basis existed for charging Hillary Clinton, in Servergate, even after putting forth a prima facia case that such charges were warranted. The DNC was horribly embarrassed when it was caught actively attempting to sink the Sanders campaign and using dirty tricks to give Clinton an edge over Trump. The Dems are also showing incredible hypocrisy in this. There exists NO evidence that the Trump campaign accepted any help from any foreign government or foreign national during the campaign. However, the facts that the government of China had significant influence with Bill Clinton during his Presidency, that foreign interests exercised considerable influence over Hillary Clinton during her stints as a Senator and SecState, that the 2008 Clinton campaign was caught excepting significant campaign funds from foreign sources through a Chinese “businessman”, that both Obama campaigns received a significant amount of donations from unidentified foreign sources, that the Chinese government was actually caught hacking US defense contractors engaged in active defense projects and that President Obama directly interfered in the elections in both Israel and France and against Brexit is apparently unimportant. This is simply an attempt to undermine a Presidency which is unpopular with certain forces in this country and the world. Nothing more.
Just about the entire DC complex is corrupt.