US President Donald Trump on Monday claimed never to have worked with Russia, after two media reports over the weekend, from The New York Times (NYT) and The Washington Post, reignited the controversy surrounding his behavior towards Russia and his firing of former FBI chief James Comey.
“I never worked for Russia and you know that answer better than anybody,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “It’s a disgrace that you even ask that question. It’s all a big fat hoax,” the president angrily said to a reporter from the South Lawn of the White House.
The comment was in relation to an issue in the public eye ever since the 2016 election campaign, but more specifically to a report from the NYT last weekend, which said that in 2017, US law enforcement officials began investigating whether Trump had been working on behalf of Russia and against US interests.
Trump said earlier that former FBI and Justice Department officials were “known scoundrels” and “dirty cops.”
Read more: Opinion: Donald Trump’s dangerous criticism of the intelligence services
Officials ‘suspicious’ of Trump
According to the NYT report, agents and senior FBI officials had held back from investigating then-candidate Trump, despite having grown suspicious of his ties to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.
But in 2017, the president’s actions before and after he fired James Comey, particularly when Trump himself tied the firing to the Russia investigation, prompted authorities to begin a counterintelligence investigation.
The inquiry was taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller just days after FBI officials had opened it, as part of his investigation into Russian meddling in the US presidential election. The Times said it was unclear if Mueller was still exploring Trump’s ties to Russia.
Read more: Robert Mueller’s US-Russia probe: What you need to know
Separately, the Washington Post also claimed that Trump was trying to conceal information about his meetings with President Vladimir Putin from aides and colleagues. The paper claimed that this also aroused investigators’ suspicions.
Trump was dismissive of the reports on Monday, as he had been in a series of messages on Twitter beforehand. “It’s a lot of fake news,” he said. “I have relationships with almost everybody and that’s a good thing not a bad thing,” Trump added.
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Who is James Comey?
A divisive figure
The seventh in a lineage of FBI directors with law degrees, James Comey has shaped politics in the US as the head of the law enforcement agency. But who is the man behind the headlines? From prosecuting an American celebrity to refusing to sanction the NSA’s mass surveillance program, DW explores the contentious life of James Comey.
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Who is James Comey?
Taking down a celebrity
Serving as Manhattan’s chief federal prosecutor, Comey rose to notoriety in 2002, when he led the prosecution of US celebrity Martha Stewart for securities fraud and obstruction of justice. Stewart, widely known in the US for her cooking and lifestyle shows, served a 5-month jail sentence following the highly-publicized case.
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Who is James Comey?
Enhanced interrogation
In late 2003, Comey was confirmed as the US deputy attorney general, making him the second-highest-ranking official in the Justice Department. Serving under former President George W. Bush, Comey endorsed a memorandum approving the use of 13 enhanced interrogation techniques during the War on Terror, including waterboarding. He later said he lobbied to have the policy toned down.
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Who is James Comey?
Mass surveillance
Comey has warned of the consequences of domestic mass surveillance, saying in March: “There is no such thing as absolute privacy in America.” While serving as acting attorney general during the hospitalization of John Ashcroft in 2004, he refused to endorse the legality of the NSA’s domestic surveillance program, even when pressured by the Bush administration.
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Who is James Comey?
Obama’s choice
In 2013, then-President Barack Obama nominated Comey to serve as the seventh director of the FBI. He received the nomination despite being a registered member of the Republican party. Later that year, he received congressional approval to takeover the office. In his installation speech, he said the bureau’s work is founded on integrity. “Without integrity, all is lost,” he said.
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Who is James Comey?
More Holocaust education
In 2015, Comey penned an op-ed on why he required new FBI special agents and intelligence analysts to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington. He said the reason was to have them understand the consequences of abusing power and to be confronted by the atrocities humans are capable of. “I believe that the Holocaust is the most significant event in human history,” he said.
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Who is James Comey?
Election scandal
In July 2016, Comey announced that the FBI had found no evidence of criminal intention in Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as state secretary. But days before the presidential election, he issued a letter to lawmakers informing them of new emails deemed “pertinent to the investigation.” He later said no evidence was uncovered. Clinton has since blamed Comey for losing the election.
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Who is James Comey?
‘You’re fired’
On May 9, Trump sent Comey an unusual letter firing the FBI director, cutting short his 10-year mandate to lead the bureau. Given the ongoing FBI-led investigation into election-meddling by Russia, critics have warned that the move may amount to obstruction of justice for undermining the probe. Trump later appeared to threaten Comey over the existence of “tapes” of their conversations.
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Who is James Comey?
Trump-Russia nexus
Comey reportedly kept memos of interactions between him and President Donald Trump, which appear to implicate the head of state in attempts to obstruct a federal probe into Russia’s alleged involvement in influencing the 2016 election. The day after US media reported on the existence of the memos, the Justice Department named a special counsel to lead the probe amid fears of White House influence.
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Who is James Comey?
Damning testimony?
In June 2017, shortly after being fired, Comey testified in Congress that he believed Trump fired him over the Russia probe. “I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavor was to change, the way the Russia investigation was being conducted,” he told lawmakers. He has since released a book, in which he described Trump as a “mafia boss” who is “untethered to the truth.”
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New Attorney General
Ahead of his confirmation hearings in the US Senate, Trump’s nominee to the post of attorney general, William Barr, said on Monday that he would protect Mueller’s Russia probe.
“On my watch, Bob will be allowed to complete his work,” Barr said in the prepared remarks.
The former attorney general under President George H.W. Bush will have to address his previous criticism of Mueller’s probe.
Barr is expected to emphasize his independence, clarify to lawmakers that he did not seek out the job and assert that Trump did not demand a promise of loyalty in return for it.
“As Attorney General, my allegiance will be to the rule of law, the Constitution, and the American people,” Barr pledged.
Trump has already hired and fired one attorney general, Jeff Sessions, whose resignation letter to the president began “At your request, I am submitting my resignation.”
This followed weeks of pressure on Sessions from Trump, including the president telling the NYT in one interview that he would not have appointed Sessions, had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
jcg/msh (Reuters, AFP, dpa)
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Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline
Democrats in the dark
Over the summer, a security company hired by the Democratic National Convention tells the DNC that they have been successfully infiltrated by hackers for more than year. Two groups, known as Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear, both have links to the Russian government, the Washington Post reports.
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Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline
All eyes on Russia
At the end of July, the FBI launches an investigation into whether or not the Russian government ordered the DNC hack. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calls the move “paranoid.”
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Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline
‘Russia, if you’re listening’
On the campaign trail, Republican nominee Donald Trump encourages Russia to “find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” In a series of debates with rival Hillary Clinton, Trump casts doubt on Moscow’s role in hacks that targeted the DNC and Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta.
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Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline
Wikileaks targets Clinton
Wikileaks begins releasing slightly compromising emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Co-founder Julian Assange defends targeting Clinton, saying Trump’s own statements are indictment enough of the Republican nominee. Over a period of months, Wikileaks consistently denies allegations that its sources are Russian.
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Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline
CIA, FBI investigations
In a rare moment of complete agreement for the US’ two biggest intelligence agencies, both the FBI and CIA come to the conclusion that the Russian government sought to influence the US election by promoting unfavorable coverage of Hillary Clinton.
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Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline
Donald and Vladmir
Trump, who has made no secret of his admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, calls the intelligence reports “ridiculous.” Anti-Clinton voices slam the probe as a distraction meant to discredit the now president-elect. This puts Trump at odds with congressional Republicans who call for an independent investigation.
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Hacking the 2016 US election: a timeline
Obama expels diplomats
At the end of December, the Obama administration expels 35 Russian diplomats and shuts down two Russian intelligence compounds as the Kremlin continues to deny having a role in the summer’s cyber attacks. President Putin eschews direct retaliation, saying he will wait to see how President-elect Trump’s Russia policies play out.
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/donald-trump-says-he-never-worked-for-russia/a-47079290