Director Comey states that neither the FBI nor the Justice Department had any knowledge of wiretapping of Trump Tower.
As FBI Director James Comey, testifies before Congress this morning he confirmed to the House Intelligence Committee, that neither the FBI nor the Department of Justice FBI Director have no evidence that supports the assertion that President Donald Trump’s claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower in the run-up to the election.
“I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI,” Comey told the House Intelligence Committee.
Director Comey, stated that the FBI is investigating Russia’s meddling in the presidential election, including possible links between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
Director Comey described it as a “counterintelligence investigation” but said it will “also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed.” He noted that the FBI usually does not comment on active counterintelligence investigations but said he was authorized to do so in this case because of the extraordinary public interest.
Later in the morning Director Comey noted that “some folks may want to make comparison to past instances where the Department of Justice and the FBI have spoken about the details of some investigations,” an apparent reference to his decision to speak publicly before the election about the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. He said the difference was that “those involved the details of completed investigations.”
Republicans on the committee focused their questions on getting to the bottom of who leaked to the news media the fact that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had pre-inauguration conversations with Russia’s ambassador.
Director Comey declined to say whether the FBI was investigating the potential leak of classified information related to Flynn, but said that such a leak would be taken very seriously.
Some quotes used in this story were provided by the ASSOCIATED PRESS.