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.
Panels have concluded that no evidence shows “that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia” during the election.
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:
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:
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.
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:
NSA Director Mike Rogers
Rogers denies that British intelligence helped wiretap Trump Tower.
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