White House panics, asks FBI to lie to public about Donald Trump-Russia scandal. FBI refuses.
If you’ve been wondering just how thoroughly Donald Trump and his White House are now feeling the heat over the Trump-Russia scandal, we now have tangible proof of how desperate they’ve become to put the genie back in the bottle. White House chief of staff Reince Priebus called FBI Director James Comey this week and asked him to lie about Trump-Russia. Comey refused, and the FBI then apparently leaked the exchange to the media – and it appears Priebus broke the law in the process.
Nine days ago, the New York Times revealed that the FBI has been investigating four of Donald Trump’s campaign advisers over the repeated phone calls they made to Russian intelligence officers during the election. Three of the advisers, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Carter Page – none of whom are currently working for the White House – have publicly professed their innocence. Michael Flynn has remained silent since resigning his White House job.
But even as this was all playing out publicly, Reince Priebus privately reached out to the FBI twice to try to shut it all down. The first time he asked FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to publicly announce that these phone calls between the Trump advisers and Russia never took place. This of course would have been a lie, so McCabe refused. The second time, Priebus asked FBI Director James Comey to tell reporters off-the-record that the phone calls never took place, in the hope that the media would stop pursuing the story.
In both instances, the FBI said no. And considering that CNN is now reporting the details of those two interactions, it appears that either Comey or McCabe or someone close to them in the FBI has leaked the incident to the media. CNN says that Priebus violated “decade-old restrictions” by reaching out directly to the FBI in such a manner, which makes it sound like he broke the law. This leak shows how desperate the White House has become over Trump-Russia, and how little interest Comey and the FBI have at this point in bailing Trump out. Contribute to Palmer Report
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