The administration of the trump appealed to high-ranking members of the intelligence community and Congress with a request to assist in the refutation of material about relationships, associates trump with Russia. The investigation of this politically motivated case is currently the FBI and members of Congress, defending the position of the White house.
On behalf of the White house last week, officials called several news agencies in an attempt to refute the information about the alleged contacts of representatives of the election headquarters of the trump agents of the Russian intelligence.
These calls followed a failed attempt by the White house to ensure that the leadership of the FBI made a statement to the press in which it could focus on the dubious nature of the publications concerning the relations of the President’s team with Russia.
On Friday, February 24, the White house acknowledged that it really appealed to the leadership of the FBI with this request, but it is not said that he then asked the other officials, who agreed to do what the FBI refused to do — that is, to participate in organized by the White house phone calls to news outlets, including the Washington Post.
Two of these officials agreed to do this while maintaining their names in secret, a practice which the President strongly condemns the trump.
In General, these officials tried to downplay the significance of contacts, associates trump with Russia, calling them rare and insignificant. However, they refused to answer the essential questions concerning this matter, so their comments were not published by the Washington Post and other publications.
White house spokesman Sean Spicer (Sean Spicer) confirmed that White house officials were contacted by officials to convince them to refute the information about the relations with Russia, stressing that the administration had not done anything inappropriate. “When the FBI told us that the publication [of relations with Russia] are fiction, we explained to the journalists with whom they can communicate to confirm information to the FBI,” said the spokesman.
The decision to bring officials to this case can be seen as a threat to the independence of the American intelligence community, which should remain aloof from party strife, and as an attempt to undermine the credibility of ongoing investigations of congressional committees. The officials believe their participation in this attempt to correct inaccuracies and errors in the coverage of the situation.
Attempts to refute rumors about the relationship of associates trump with Russia, have joined senior members of Congress with access to classified intelligence, including Senator Richard Burr (Richard Burr) and a member of the house of representatives Devin Nunez (Devin Nunes), the Chairpersons of the committees for intelligence in their wards. Representative nuñez stated that he has already begun contacting reporters to refute the rumors.
Unlike the rest núñez agreed to make an official statement, which was then published in the Wall Street Journal.
In an interview, Burr admitted that he had discussed with the White house a question connected with Russia and the news were contacted with information publications to refute the content of articles published by the New York Times and CNN, which referred to “regular” or “permanent” contacts of the members of the electoral headquarters of the trump agents of the Russian intelligence.
“I really held such talks,” said Burr, adding that he believes these contacts are appropriate, because “I knew that I can share what I know of information, without violating the borders of my responsibility to the Committee as part of the ongoing investigation.”
Attempts by the administration to refute the stories about Russia that are published in many publications, intensified on Sunday, February 19, when in a TV interview the head of the administration of the Raines trump Priebus (Reince Priebus) said that “high-ranking members of the intelligence community” had instructed him to refute the false rumors about the contacts of the members of the electoral headquarters of the trump of Russia.
In its statement, Priebus called the information published in these articles, different from “exaggeration” to “perfect nonsense”.
According to administration officials, Priebus made these comments after consultation with the FBI Director James Comey (James B. Comey) and Deputy Director of the FBI’s Andrew McCabe (Andrew McCabe). Apparently, therefore, the leadership of the FBI has tried to draw a clear line between consent to commenting on the situation a White house official, and to comment on the situation on their own.
Mark Warner (Mark Warner), a Democrat, is part of the Senate Committee on intelligence, said that he contacted the Director of the CIA Mike Pompeo (Mike Pompeo) and Burr to Express their “serious concern in connection with what it may mean for the independence” of current investigations.
“I am consulting with members of the intelligence Committee, to develop an appropriate course of action and ensure that the American people will be presented the results of a thorough and impartial investigation, which they deserve and which will not interfere the White house,” said Warner on Friday, February 24.
A member of the house of representatives Adam Schiff (Adam B. Schiff), a Democrat, is part of the Committee on intelligence, also issued a statement Friday evening in which he stressed that the White house “wants to force intelligence officials to deny the unwanted news coverage that represents a new and more dangerous threat to the independence of the intelligence community.”
Former intelligence officials have expressed concern with the blurring of the boundaries between policy and intelligence, and some of them recalled accusations of the Republicans that the Obama administration misrepresented the intelligence in its reports about attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in 2012.
“I doubt that the leadership of the intelligence wanted to intervene in this matter,” said former CIA Director Michael Hayden (Michael Hayden), adding that the sharp wording of the denials of Primus not meet the requirements for precision in the language you prefer intelligence analysts.
“Remember Benghazi, wrote Hayden in his email. — What happens when politicians refer to the version of the intelligence officials. In politics there are other rules, there are other formulations and other purposes. Attempts to mix the intelligence community in politics always end sadly, and apparently, we are now seeing just such a situation.”
The trump is a reflection of her deep concern, as media coverage of her relationship with Russia. Trump continues to speak respectfully about the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, despite the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election to help Trump win.
Trump several times spoke disparagingly about those intelligence agencies that his administration last week asked for help. Shortly before taking office, trump has accused the American intelligence Agency in organizing campaign designed to defame him.
White house statement on this question came after reports by CNN that the FBI refused to comply the request of the authority, and to publicly deny media reports about the ties associates of trump with the Russian intelligence.
Administration officials disputed these reports, noting that the morning of February 15 McCabe in conversation with Pribram called the article published in the New York Times, “nonsense”.
FBI officials refused to comment on the situation.
White house officials refused to comment on subsequent attempts of the administration to involve the refutation of the rumors of other government officials, as well as to report the names of those intelligence officials who spoke to the Washington Post last week. In the course of telephone conversations these officials insisted that they were called “high-ranking intelligence officials in the administration of the tramp” and “high-ranking members of the intelligence community.”
During a short interview on the evening of 15 February, a senior intelligence official said the assertion that colleagues trump was in frequent contact with the Russians, falsely, adding that their conversations were spontaneous, limited and based on Russia’s interest in establishing relations with the future administration of the tramp, not in influencing the outcome of the presidential elections in 2016.
This senior official apparently, told about contacts former adviser to the administration trump national security issues Michael Flynn (as Michael Flynn) and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak held before the inauguration of the trump. Earlier in February, Flynn was forced to leave his post after the publication Washington Post reported that Flynn discussed with the Russian Ambassador the question of U.S. sanctions against Russia, and then misled administration officials about the content and nature of their contacts.
Representatives of the CIA and the office of the Director of National intelligence declined to say whether senior officials of these agencies discussed the issue of the coverage of Russia with the White house and participated in attempts to refute this information.
The Director of the CIA Mike Pompeo is the most senior intelligence official in the administration, as Senator Dan Coates (Dan Coats) is still waiting for his candidacy to the post of Director of National intelligence will be approved.
When Pompeo was still a member of Congress from the Republican party, he was one of the most determined advocates of the idea of a thorough investigation of the situation with Benghazi, which had been based on allegations that the Obama administration for political purposes has distorted intelligence reports regarding the attack.
The contacts of the leaders of the CIA with information publications — especially on such global issues as terrorism and in their efforts to challenge the way the media covered the activities of the CIA, is not unusual. However, to involve the CIA in the investigation of possible contacts associates trump with Russia will be problematic.
The CIA is not responsible for this investigation. Given the rich history of abuses of power by this Agency within the United States, CIA officials normally extremely wary of any attempts to engage them, which may make the Agency vulnerable to charges of attempts to politicize intelligence.
One official of the American intelligence refused to discuss the role of Pompeo in this matter, saying only that he “did not participate in the preparation and approval of public statements about the alleged contacts with the Russians, with which the White house acted on the weekend.”
The question of whether there had been such contacts at all, still causes a lot of controversy. In addition to Flynn in this investigation appear the names of other influential figures such as former head of the electoral headquarters of the trump by Paul Manafort (Paul Manafort), who in the past worked as a political adviser to the Pro-Kremlin President of Ukraine.
The intelligence reports referred to multiple contacts between team members trump and the Russians, one way or another connected with the Kremlin during the election campaign and after it. According to officials, these reports were compiled on the basis of intercepted conversations and correspondence with the Russians, and on the basis of information received from other sources.
Nunez, who was part of the transition team trump, have resisted calls to have his Committee investigated alleged contacts between associates of trump and Russia. In an interview, he said that after months of investigation U.S. authorities there is no evidence of these contacts.
“They checked everything, and found that it’s a dead end. This leads me to the conclusion that there was no contact, even contacts at the level of the pizza,” said núñez, rejecting even the possibility of inadvertent contacts between administration officials trump and Russian agents. According to nuñez, “the investigators even no clues”.
