Mr. Comey said that it was unusual for the F.B.I. to confirm or deny the existence of any investigations, but that in unusual circumstances when it is in the public interest, the bureau will sometimes discuss such matters.
“This is one of those circumstances,” he said.
“The F.B.I., as part of our counterintelligence effort, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 president election,” he continued, adding that the investigation included looking at whether associates of Mr. Trump were in contact with Russian officials, and whether they colluded with them.
Admiral Rogers made it clear that Russian efforts to interfere in democratic elections were not a one-off intrusion. They continue — now in Europe.
“We’ve seen some of the same things we’ve seen in the U.S. in terms of disinformation, fakes news,” he said.
President Trump, offering commentary on Twitter, put the best spin on it, noting that the witnesses did not say Russian hackers had changed vote tallies.
The vote tallies thing is a sensitive issue for several reasons. Investigating the vote tallies would expose the hacking of voting machines in certain states, which was possibly done by the Republican Party, and may have been done with technical and other assistance by the Russians. There is a lot more dirt here having to do with actions by certain Republican elected officials, who may also have colluded with the Russians, or been beneficiaries of Russian spying on their Democrat opponents. There is already substantial credible public evidence to this effect. This politically wold be akin to tossing a thermite bomb into a natural gas tank farm, as it would potentially lay open a number of illegal acts, including treason within the Republican Party.
F.B.I. director says there’s ‘no information’ to support Trump wiretapping charge
Mr. Comey told the House Intelligence Committee, “We have no information to support” President Trump’s assertion on Twitter that President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower.
“We have no information to support those tweets,” Mr. Comey said, repeating moments later, “All I can tell you is that we have no information that supports them.”
The N.S.A. chief, Admiral Rogers, weighed in as well, saying that he had no knowledge of anyone asking the British or any other ally to wiretap Mr. Trump. That seemed to refute another claim made by the White House.
“I’ve seen nothing on the N.S.A. side that we engaged in such activity, nor that anyone engaged in such activity,” Admiral Rogers said.
He then explicitly denied having any indication that Mr. Trump was wiretapped by British intelligence at the request of Mr. Obama….More Here...
