Courtesy of TPM:
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday appeared to contradict the Trump administration’s claims about the background investigation into a former White House staffer who left the administration last week amid allegations of domestic violence.
Various outlets have reported that the FBI alerted the White House to the allegations of domestic violence made against former staff secretary Rob Porter by two ex-wives and an ex-girlfriend before those allegations were made public last week. The administration has said in its defense that Porter’s background check was incomplete at the time of his ouster, and that they wanted to allow the FBI to finish its investigation before passing judgement on Porter.
But Wray’s account of the FBI’s communications with the Trump administration, told to the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday, seemed to differ from the White House’s.
“What I can tell you is that the FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July,” he said, noting that the FBI “followed the established protocol” with Porter.
“Soon thereafter we received requests for follow-up inquiry and we did the follow-up and provided that information in November. And then we administratively closed the file in January,” he continued. “And then earlier this month we received some additional information and we passed that on as well.”
This revelation caused Sarah Huckabee Sanders to start her spin cycle once again, only now she laid the blame on the White House personnel office, which she characterized as "career officials. " (That is clearly code for "deep state.")
Now as entertaining as all of this is, and it really is, there was also something else revealed during that hearing yesterday.
Courtesy of Mother Jones:
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) appeared to surprise the witnesses by asking if Trump had specifically urged them to address the Russian threat.
“I can’t say I’ve been specifically directed to blunt or actually stop” Russian influence efforts, NSA Director Mike Rogers replied. Rogers added that he considers it his agency’s job to gather intelligence for policymakers rather than act on it.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo, appearing eager to defend Trump, said the president has generally asked the intelligence community to address threats, adding that the CIA takes “all kinds of steps to disrupt what the Russians are trying to do.” But he did not say that Trump has specifically directed the agency to prevent Russian interference.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said he has not been “specifically directed by the president” to combat Russian meddling. Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, similarly said Trump has not urged him to address Russian meddling. Nor has Trump pressed for any interagency effort to combat Russian interference, Coats conceded. “We essentially are relying on the investigations that are underway,” he said.
During the hearing ALL of the intelligence chief's unanimously stated that Russia was continuing to meddle in our politics, and to engage in cyber attacks, and yet Trump has not only refused to personally direct the government to do anything about it, but has also refused to implement the sanctions that Congress overwhelmingly voted to put in place in order to punish them for what they have ALREADY done.
You know if you were trying to convince people that you were secretly working for the Kremlin, this is exactly how you would do that.
FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday appeared to contradict the Trump administration’s claims about the background investigation into a former White House staffer who left the administration last week amid allegations of domestic violence.
Various outlets have reported that the FBI alerted the White House to the allegations of domestic violence made against former staff secretary Rob Porter by two ex-wives and an ex-girlfriend before those allegations were made public last week. The administration has said in its defense that Porter’s background check was incomplete at the time of his ouster, and that they wanted to allow the FBI to finish its investigation before passing judgement on Porter.
But Wray’s account of the FBI’s communications with the Trump administration, told to the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday, seemed to differ from the White House’s.
“What I can tell you is that the FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July,” he said, noting that the FBI “followed the established protocol” with Porter.
“Soon thereafter we received requests for follow-up inquiry and we did the follow-up and provided that information in November. And then we administratively closed the file in January,” he continued. “And then earlier this month we received some additional information and we passed that on as well.”
This revelation caused Sarah Huckabee Sanders to start her spin cycle once again, only now she laid the blame on the White House personnel office, which she characterized as "career officials. " (That is clearly code for "deep state.")
Now as entertaining as all of this is, and it really is, there was also something else revealed during that hearing yesterday.
Courtesy of Mother Jones:
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) appeared to surprise the witnesses by asking if Trump had specifically urged them to address the Russian threat.
“I can’t say I’ve been specifically directed to blunt or actually stop” Russian influence efforts, NSA Director Mike Rogers replied. Rogers added that he considers it his agency’s job to gather intelligence for policymakers rather than act on it.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo, appearing eager to defend Trump, said the president has generally asked the intelligence community to address threats, adding that the CIA takes “all kinds of steps to disrupt what the Russians are trying to do.” But he did not say that Trump has specifically directed the agency to prevent Russian interference.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said he has not been “specifically directed by the president” to combat Russian meddling. Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, similarly said Trump has not urged him to address Russian meddling. Nor has Trump pressed for any interagency effort to combat Russian interference, Coats conceded. “We essentially are relying on the investigations that are underway,” he said.
During the hearing ALL of the intelligence chief's unanimously stated that Russia was continuing to meddle in our politics, and to engage in cyber attacks, and yet Trump has not only refused to personally direct the government to do anything about it, but has also refused to implement the sanctions that Congress overwhelmingly voted to put in place in order to punish them for what they have ALREADY done.
You know if you were trying to convince people that you were secretly working for the Kremlin, this is exactly how you would do that.
