Sen. Tom Cotton on Sunday previewed an upcoming House hearing on Russia’s meddling in the USA election, saying FBI Director James Comey’s testimony Monday would address “unsubstantiated allegations” of dealings between Moscow and President Donald Trump’s campaign.
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At the start of yesterday’s hearing, Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, also rejected the wiretapping claims, saying: “Let me be clear: We know there was not a wiretap on Trump Tower”.
Mr Spicer was asked about various associates of Mr Trump – former campaign advisors Roger Stone and Carter Page, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, and former national security advisor Michael Flynn – whose names had been included in questions by Democratic members of the committee that morning.
“I don’t know the basis for President Trump’s assertion”.
The US intelligence community believes alleged Russian hacking during the presidential election was done to help Mr Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. Of course, the White House press secretary wanted to focus on the Russian part of the equation while deferring to the intelligence panels on the wiretap claims that his boss has been unable to substantiate.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a former Republican senator, recused himself from investigating the Russia meddling allegations after it was revealed that he did not answer accurately during his confirmation hearing when asked about his contacts with Russian officials during the election.
Schiff said he expects Comey’s testimony will definitively put an end to Trump’s wiretap allegations.
“Was there a physical wiretap of Trump Tower?” “It certainly wasn’t our intention to say that today, because we don’t have any information on that subject, and that’s not something that was looked at”. But Comey, as the Federal Bureau of Investigation chief, sought to get the Justice Department, which oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to disavow Trump’s claim shortly after the president made it, but the agency has not released any statement.
Thus, Trump began the ninth week of his presidency facing heightened legal questions about his campaign and political questions about his credibility. He said he stands by an earlier conclusion of USA intelligence agencies that Russian Federation did attempt to influence the 2016 election with the goal of electing Trump.
That may be the bottom line from an extraordinary congressional hearing Monday that publicly confirmed some of the biggest aspects of the FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, while adding a few new and intriguing smaller details.
During the Monday briefing, Spicer also clarified his conversation with British officials after he repeated an unsubstantiated report from a Fox News pundit that the country’s spy agency had helped Obama eavesdrop on Trump during the presidential campaign previous year.
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Trump followed up his Clapper tweet with another claiming that the “Russian story” was being pushed by bitter Democrats. The Trump administration has also reiterated those denials. “Because it is an open, ongoing investigation, and is classified, I can not say more about what we are doing and whose conduct we are examining”, Comey continued.
