Two senior Trump administration officials refuted a report that the White House had tried to get the FBI to dispute a story alleging repeated contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian intelligence officials
In a background briefing, two senior Trump administration officials inveighed against a CNN report that the FBI rejected a White House request to “publicly knock down” a story first reported by the New York Times. That report, published on Feb. 14, said there were repeated contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russian intelligence officials in 2015.
A senior administration official characterized the CNN report, posted Thursday, as false, disgusting and erroneus. That story said that the White House request came after the FBI had indicated to the White House that the Times story about the Russian contacts was inaccurate.
On the morning the story broke in the Times, Feb. 14, McCabe and one senior administration official both attended a White House meeting on a separate issue. McCabe, according to the senior administration officials, approached the official and asked to meet with him privately afterward. In this meeting, McCabe told the official that the Times story was “garbage.” The official said he was getting “crushed,” and asked what he could do to counter the story. McCabe told him that he could do nothing — because the FBI can’t get into the business of issuing statements about particular stories. McCabe said he’d consider the problem and call him later.
Then, Comey spoke with the senior administration official and reiterated the agency’s opinion that the Time story was inaccurate. Asked by the official whether the White House could itself state in news interviews that the story about the Russian contacts was inaccurate, Comey assented. On Sunday, Priebus appeared on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” to dispute “bogus stories like the one in “The New York Times” that we have had constant contact with Russian officials.”
Then, on “Fox News Sunday,” Priebus went further. “I can assure you, the top levels of the intelligence community have assured me that [the allegation] is not only grossly overstated, but also wrong,” Priebus told “Fox News Sunday.” “They have made it very clear that the story is complete garbage.”
The senior administration officials said that the White House had not initiated the conversation with the FBI. They said that the FBI had contacted the White House. The CNN story referred to a Justice Department directive that restricts communication about investigations. According to a 2009 Justice Department memo, initial communications between the Justice Department and the White House on a possible or ongoing criminal investigations can involve only the attorney general and deputy attorney general on the DOJ side and to the counsel and principal deputy counsel, the president and vice president on the White House side.
Senior administration officials defended conversation with the FBI by suggesting there was an exception to the rule made for public affairs. The directive also states: “This policy does not, however, prevent officials in the communications, public affairs, or press offices of the White House and the Department of Justice from communicating with each other to coordinate efforts.”
The White House is operating in a gray area here, given that McCabe is not a communications or public affairs official, CBS Justice Department Reporter Paula Reid suggested. But Reid points out that even if the White House broke a rule in this case, it did not break a law. And there are probably few if any ramifications for breaking a rule.
The FBI has declined to comment.
