This isn’t particularly new ‘news’…..
The FBI had been investigating people in the Trump campaign BEFORE Donald Trump won the election….
And….
Right after the election the media spotlighted a Donald Trump tripping over himself to make contacts with Russian President Putin…..
The worries where out loud ….
So it would seem to not be a surprise that the FBI, with the firing of their boss and statements flying around that Trump wanted the Russian investigation quashed that the FBI would be alarmed and begin snooping around to look into any ties that Donald Trump would have to Russia and if those ties could be influencing his behavior ….
The New York Times story coming out now seems to be a prelude to the closing months of the Mueller Investigation of the Russian efforts at influencing the 2016 American Presidential election, particularly the Russian efforts to derail the Hillary Clinton campaign….It was well known that Clinton , a former Sec of State under Obama, had no affinity for Putin….
It is also public knowledge that Trump had financial bail out money loaned to him by Russian’s in the past…..
Revelations about conduct by Michael Cohen , Trump’s lawyer and Paul Manafort , Trump’s brief campaign manager, and Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security aide have ALL led back to Russians….
There had also been discussions about a Trump hotel in Moscow….
The NY Times piece does NOT give a clear picture of the status or results of the FBI investigations , which were walked over to the Mueller people….
There IS probably a whole lot of this story running deep….
But ?
For awhile Donald Trump was going after the FBI HARD…..
In response to this media piece , which the cable news channels are hot about?
Expect MORE Trump broadsides thrown at the agency and its head….
Big stories tend to get dumped on Friday night to escape the daily media parade….
This one STILL has them breathlessly spotlighting it…..
And it STILL isn’t gonna take away from the Trump border wall Government shutdown and the hardships beginning for hundreds of thousands of federal workers….
The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, took over the inquiry into Mr. Trump when he was appointed, days after F.B.I. officials opened it. That inquiry is part of Mr. Mueller’s broader examination of how Russian operatives interfered in the 2016 election and whether any Trump associates conspired with them. It is unclear whether Mr. Mueller is still pursuing the counterintelligence matter, and some former law enforcement officials outside the investigation have questioned whether agents overstepped in opening it.
The criminal and counterintelligence elements were coupled together into one investigation, former law enforcement officials said in interviews in recent weeks, because if Mr. Trump had ousted the head of the F.B.I. to impede or even end the Russia investigation, that was both a possible crime and a national security concern. The F.B.I.’s counterintelligence division handles national security matters.
If the president had fired Mr. Comey to stop the Russia investigation, the action would have been a national security issue because it naturally would have hurt the bureau’s effort to learn how Moscow interfered in the 2016 election and whether any Americans were involved, according to James A. Baker, who served as F.B.I. general counsel until late 2017. He privately testified in October before House investigators who were examining the F.B.I.’s handling of the full Russia inquiry.
“Not only would it be an issue of obstructing an investigation, but the obstruction itself would hurt our ability to figure out what the Russians had done, and that is what would be the threat to national security,” Mr. Baker said in his testimony, portions of which were read to The New York Times. Mr. Baker did not explicitly acknowledge the existence of the investigation of Mr. Trump to congressional investigators.
No evidence has emerged publicly that Mr. Trump was secretly in contact with or took direction from Russian government officials. An F.B.I. spokeswoman and a spokesman for the special counsel’s office both declined to comment….
Donald Trump
@realDonaldTrump
11 minutes ago
Democrats should come back to Washington and work to end the Shutdown, while at the same time ending the horrible humanitarian crisis at our Southern Border. I am in the White House waiting for you!
13 minutes ago
Lyin’ James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter S and his lover, agent Lisa Page, & more, all disgraced and/or fired and caught in the act. These are just some of the losers that tried to do a number on your President. Part of the Witch Hunt. Remember the “insurance policy?” This is it!
1 hour ago
I have been FAR tougher on Russia than Obama, Bush or Clinton. Maybe tougher than any other President. At the same time, & as I have often said, getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. I fully expect that someday we will have good relations with Russia again!
2 hours ago
Wow, just learned in the Failing New York Times that the corrupt former leaders of the FBI, almost all fired or forced to leave the agency for some very bad reasons, opened up an investigation on me, for no reason & with no proof, after I fired Lyin’ James Comey, a total sleaze!
…Funny thing about James Comey. Everybody wanted him fired, Republican and Democrat alike. After the rigged & botched Crooked Hillary investigation, where she was interviewed on July 4th Weekend, not recorded or sworn in, and where she said she didn’t know anything (a lie),….
….the FBI was in complete turmoil (see N.Y. Post) because of Comey’s poor leadership and the way he handled the Clinton mess (not to mention his usurpation of powers from the Justice Department). My firing of James Comey was a great day for America. He was a Crooked Cop……
…..who is being totally protected by his best friend, Bob Mueller, & the 13 Angry Democrats – leaking machines who have NO interest in going after the Real Collusion (and much more) by Crooked Hillary Clinton, her Campaign, and the Democratic National Committee. Just Watch!
15 hours ago
.@CNN called a San Diego news station (@KUSINews) for negative reports on the Wall. When the station said that Walls work, CNN no longer had interest. #FakeNews
15 hours ago
Drug prices declined in 2018, the first time in nearly half a century. During the first 19 months of my Administration, Americans saved $26 Billion on prescription drugs. Our policies to get cheaper generic drugs to market are working!
Yo Donald?
People still going to work , but not getting paychecks while your rightwingnut media palls do…..
Right on time….
President Donald Trump on Saturday lashed out following a New York Times report that said the FBI opened an inquiry into the commander in chief shortly after he fired FBI Director James Comey that centered on whether Trump was a national security threat to his own country.
“Wow, just learned in the Failing New York Times that the corrupt former leaders of the FBI, almost all fired or forced to leave the agency for some very bad reasons, opened up an investigation on me, for no reason & with no proof, after I fired Lyin’ James Comey, a total sleaze!” Trump tweeted….
More…
“President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials,” the Washington Post reports.
“Trump did so after a meeting with Putin in 2017 in Hamburg that was also attended by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. U.S. officials learned of Trump’s actions when a White House adviser and a senior State Department official sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout shared by Tillerson.”
“There is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader over the past two years… Such a gap would be unusual in any presidency, let alone one that Russia sought to install through what U.S. intelligence agencies have described as an unprecedented campaign of election interference.”
Politicalwire…