James Comey confirms FBI is investigating possible Russia-Trump links, dismisses wiretapping claims

Donald Trump's claim that the Obama administration had "wire-tapped" his Trump Tower headquarters has been thoroughly and publicly debunked by FBI director James Comey.

In his much-anticipated appearance before a Congressional committee hearing, Mr Comey demolished the President's assertion, made in a tweet on Saturday March 4.

"The FBI has no evidence to support those tweets", Mr Comey revealed. Although members of Congress who have been privy to classified briefings have made similar declarations, the director's comment was the first public admission from anyone in a privileged position of knowledge within the US intelligence community that the President's claim had no basis in fact. Mr Comey had clearly anticipated the line of questioning from the most senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, and volunteered to the Congressman that the over-arching Department of Justice did not have any evidence to support Mr Trump's allegations either.

Mr Schiff also put to Mr Comey the President's tweeted assertion that the wire-tapping "is McCarthyism!"

"We have no information to support them [the tweets]. I try very hard not to engage in any 'isms'," Mr Comey replied.

Sitting alongside the FBI director was the other significant figure in the US electronic intelligence gathering community, Mike Rogers of the National Security Agency.

Admiral Rogers also spoke frankly of the NSA's frustration with the President's commentary on intelligence matters since his initial tweets in March.

Asked if the NSA had requested the British agency GCHQ to "wire-tap" Trump Towers on its behalf, Admiral Rogers replied: "No sir. Nor would I — that would be expressly against the construct of the Five Eyes agreement that has been in place for decades."

Comey officially confirms Russia investigation

Last week, during a visit to the Oval Office by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr Trump had joked that "at least we have something in common" — a reference to Edward Snowden's intelligence leaks in 2013, which revealed US eavesdropping on the German leader's phone in 2010.

Responding to questions on the President's quip, Admiral Rogers admitted that the President's decision to raise that surveillance "certainly complicates things" with German intelligence partners, but added that he believed "the relationship is strong enough" to withstand any damage.

The Intelligence Committee hearing has also delivered an official, if guarded, acknowledgement by the FBI that it is in the midst of a thorough investigation into Russian involvement in last year's US election, including any coordination by members of the Trump campaign team.

"I have been authorised by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian Government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 Presidential election," Mr Comey said.

"And 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.

"As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed." While noting that the investigation was "open, ongoing and is classified" the FBI director refused to say whose conduct was under investigation.

'Leaks are serious matters'

Whenever questioned about the activities of former national security advisor Mike Flynn and other Trump campaign officials including Paul Manafort, Mr Comey offered a stern "no comment".

The admission opens the possibility that figures associated with the Trump campaign team were being examined for their links with Russia, but were not necessarily the subject of intelligence surveillance — and certainly not "wire-tapping", as the President has claimed.

Republican members of the Committee used their questions to the FBI and NSA directors to probe the spate of leaks of top-secret classified intelligence to the US media from around the time the Trump administration took office.

Mr Comey assured Congress that "leaks are serious, serious matters".

Admiral Rogers added that he had "raised this directly with my own workforce over the course of the last few months to remind everyone that part of the ethics of our profession, not just a legal requirement, as intelligence professionals is that we do not engage in this activity".

"I also reminded the men and women of the NSA, if I become aware of any such conduct there is no place for you on this team," he said.

The White House has not responded to any the testimony, but Mr Trump had sought to pre-empt it with an another series of tweets hours before the hearings.

"The real story that Congress, the FBI and all others should be looking into is the leaking of Classified information. Must find leaker now!" the President wrote.

"The Democrats made up and pushed the Russian story as an excuse for running a terrible campaign. Big advantage in Electoral College & lost!"

The big losers of the Russian hacking scandal may yet be those who invested all their capital in a script that turned out to based on a fairy tale.

In Monday’s House Intelligence Committee hearings, James Comey did confirm that his FBI has found nothing to support President Trump’s tweet that President Obama ordered him wiretapped. Not unexpected, but undeniably an embarrassment for the tweeter-in-chief.(THIS ISSUE IS FAR FORM DONE - PLUS TRUMP CAN QUOTE NUMEROUS MSM WHO SAID THERE WAS TAPPING. HOW EMBARRASING TO THE GLOBALIST MSM)

Yet longer-term damage may have been done to the left. For Monday’s hearing showed that its rendering of the campaign of 2016 may be a product of fiction and a fevered imagination.

After eight months investigating the hacking and leaking of the emails of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta and the DNC, there is apparently no evidence yet of Trump collusion with Russia.

Former Director of National Intelligence Gen. James Clapper has said that, as of his departure day, Jan. 20, he had seen no evidence of a Russia-Trump collusion.

Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell also made that clear this month: “On the question of the Trump campaign conspiring with the Russians here, there is smoke, but there is no fire, at all. … There’s no little campfire, there’s no little candle, there’s no spark. And there’s a lot of people looking for it.” Morell was a surrogate for the Hillary Clinton campaign.

But while the FBI is still searching for a Trump connection, real crimes have been unearthed – committed by anti-Trump bureaucrats colluding with mainstream media – to damage Trump’s presidency.

There is hard evidence of collusion between the intel community and the New York Times and the Washington Post, both beneficiaries of illegal leaks – felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

While the howls have been endless that Trump accused Obama of a “felony,” the one provable felony here was the leak of a transcript of an intercepted conversation between Gen. Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador.

That leak ended Flynn’s career as national security adviser. And Director Comey would neither confirm nor deny that President Obama was aware of the existence of the Flynn transcript.

So where do we stand after yesterday’s hearing and eight-month FBI investigation? The Russians did hack Podesta’s email account and the DNC, and while the FBI has found no evidence of Trump campaign collusion with the Russians, it is still looking.

However, the known unknowns seem more significant.

How could DNI Director Clapper and CIA Director Morell say that no connection had been established between Trump’s campaign and the Russians, without there having been an investigation? And how could such an investigation be conclusive in exonerating Trump’s associates – without some use of electronic surveillance?

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Did the FBI fly to Moscow and question Putin’s cyberwarfare team?

More questions arise. If, in its investigation of the Russian hacking and a Trump connection, the FBI did receive the fruits of some electronic surveillance of the Trump campaign, were Attorney General Loretta Lynch, White House aides or President Obama made aware of any such surveillance? Did any give a go-ahead to surveil the Trump associates? Comey would neither confirm nor deny that they did.

So, if Obama were aware of an investigation into the Trump campaign, using intel sources and methods, Trump would not be entirely wrong in his claims, and Obama would have some ‘splainin’ to do.

Is the FBI investigating the intelligence sources who committed felonies by illegally disclosing information about the Trump campaign?

Comey would not commit to investigate these leaks, though this could involve criminal misconduct within his own FBI.

Again, the only known crimes committed by Americans during and after the campaign are the leaks of security secrets by agents of the intel community, colluding with the Fourth Estate, which uses the First Amendment to provide cover for criminal sources, whom they hail as “whistleblowers.”

Indeed, if there was no surveillance of Trump of any kind, where did all these stories come from, which their reporters attributed to “intelligence sources”?

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from any role in the Russian hacking scandal. But the Justice Department should demand that the FBI put the highest priority on investigating the deep state and its journalistic collaborators in the sabotage of the Trump presidency.

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If Comey refuses to do it, appoint a special counsel.

In the last analysis, as Glenn Greenwald, no Trumpite, writes for The Intercept, the real loser may well be the Democratic Party.

If the investigation of Russiagate turns up no link between Trump and the pilfered emails, Democrats will have egg all over their faces. And the Democratic base will have to face a painful truth.

Vladimir Putin did not steal this election. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama lost it. Donald Trump won it fair and square. He is not an “illegitimate” president. There will be no impeachment. They were deceived and misled by their own leaders and media. They bought into a Big Lie