Comey: NY Times report on Trump collusion with Russians ‘not true’
The New York Times story, “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence,” published on Feb. 14, was “not true” according to James Comey, testifying Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Citing anonymous sources, the Times alleged that members of Trump’s campaign team communicated with Russian agents at around the same time that hackers published personal emails stolen from Democratic National Committee staffers and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.
“That report by the New York Times was not true. Is that a fair statement?” Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, asked.
“In the main, it was not true,” Comey replied. “The challenge, and I’m not picking on reporters, about writing on classified information is: The people talking about it often don’t really know what’s going on, and those of us who actually know what’s going on are not talking about it.”
He added, “And we don’t call the press to say, ‘Hey, you got that thing wrong about this sensitive topic.’ We just have to leave it there.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., later asked Comey if the story was “almost entirely wrong,” and Comey said yes.
Buried in the third paragraph in the New York Times report is a crucial detail: “The officials interviewed in recent weeks said that, so far, they had seen no evidence of such cooperation.”
This is the type of reporting Trump loves to label as “fake news.”
Cotton probed: “Do you have — at the time the story was published, any indication of any contact between Trump people and Russians, intelligence officers, other government officials or close associates of the Russian government?”
“That’s one I can’t answer sitting here,” Comey said.
“We can discuss that in the classified setting then. I want to turn your attention now to Mr. Flynn. The allegations of his underlying conduct to be specific. His alleged interactions with the Russian ambassador on the telephone and then what he said to senior Trump administration officials and Department of Justice officials. I understand there are other issues with Mr. Flynn related to his receipt of foreign monies or disclosure ever official advocacy, those are serious allegations that I’m sure will be pursued but I want to speak specifically about his interactions with the Russian ambassador. There’s a story on January 23rd in The Washington Post that says, entitled ‘FBI reviewed calls with Russian ambassador but found nothing illicit.’ Is this story accurate?”
Comey dodged the question: “I don’t want to comment ton that senator. I’m pretty sure the bureau has not confirmed any interception of communications. So, I don’t want to talk about that in an opening setting.”
Check out the full transcript HERE
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