James Comey confirms FBI is investigating possible Russia-Trump links, dismisses wiretapping claims
FBI director James Comey has confirmed the bureau is investigating possible links and coordination between Russia and associates of President Donald Trump.
Key points:
- James Comey's testimony before Congress is the first time he has publicly commented on suspicions of Russian links to Trump campaign
- The FBI director and other officials also denied any wiretap on Trump Tower
- NSA director Michael Rogers labelled Trump administration's claims of British complicity in alleged surveillance of his campaign as "nonsense"
- It was the first public confirmation of an investigation that began in the middle of last year, and came during Mr Comey's opening statement in a congressional hearing examining possible Russian interference in last year's US election campaign.
Mr Comey acknowledged the FBI did not ordinarily discuss ongoing investigations, but said he had been authorised to do so given the extreme public interest in this case.
"This work is very complex, and there is no way for me to give you a timetable for when it will be done," Mr Comey told the House Intelligence Committee (HIC).
The hearing, providing the most extensive public accounting of a matter that has dogged the Trump administration for its first two months, quickly broke along partisan lines.
Democrats pressed for details on the status of the FBI's investigation, while Republicans repeatedly focused on news coverage and possible improper disclosures of classified information developed through surveillance.
Under questioning from the committee's top Democrat, Adam Schiff, the FBI director also publicly contradicted a series of tweets from Mr Trump that the Obama administration had ordered a wiretap on his phones at Trump Tower in New York during the election campaign.
"I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI," Mr Comey said.
"The Department of Justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the Department of Justice and all its components: the department has no information that supports those tweets."
Mr Comey was the latest government official to reject Mr Trump's claims, made without any evidence, that Barack Obama ordered a wiretap.
Devin Nunes, a California Republican and chairman of the HIC, also rejected it earlier in the hearing.
"Let me be clear: we know there was not a wiretap on Trump Tower. However, it's still possible that other surveillance activities were used against President Trump and his associates," Mr Nunes said in his opening statement.
But Mr Nunes said it was possible other surveillance was used against Mr Trump.
Mr Nunes said "numerous" current and former US officials had leaked potentially classified information, and that his committee intended to identify them to bring them to justice.
In a further blow to the President's wiretapping claims, NSA director Michael Rogers, speaking at the same hearing, agreed the Trump administration's claims of British complicity in the alleged surveillance of his campaign were "nonsense" and would amount to violations of US law.
Just hours before Mr Rogers and Mr Comey made those statements before Congress, Mr Trump accused the Democrats of making up allegations about Russian interference, and said Congress and the FBI should be going after media leaks instead.
Mr Comey told the hearing leaks of classified information constituted serious crimes that must be investigated and prosecuted.
The HIC said earlier on Sunday that documents the Justice Department and FBI delivered late last week offered no evidence the Obama administration had wiretapped Trump Tower.
But the panel's ranking Democrat said the material offered circumstantial evidence American citizens colluded with Russians in Moscow's efforts to interfere in the presidential election.
"There was circumstantial evidence of collusion. There is direct evidence, I think, of deception," Mr Schiff said on NBC's Meet the Press.
''There's certainly enough for us to conduct an investigation."
The Senate Intelligence Committee has scheduled a similar hearing for later in the month.
AP/Reuters
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