WASHINGTON – Concerned over US President Donald Trump’s decision to firethe Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey, in May 2017,the FBI reportedly opened an investigation into whether Trump was secretlyworking on behalf of Russia, according to a New York Times report publishedSaturday.
The bureau opened the counterintelligence inquiry days after Comey wasousted, the Times reported,citing several people, including former law enforcement officials, familiarwith the probe.
Investigators were specifically looking into whether Trump’s firing ofComey posed a national security threat as well as whether it was anobstruction of justice, considering the FBI’s broader investigation intoRussia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.Former law enforcement officials told the Times that the criminal aspect(whether Trump obstructed justice) and counterintelligence aspect (whetherTrump was working covertly for Russia) of the investigation were combinedinto one inquiry because it would have been considered a national securitythreat if Trump had indeed ousted Comey to impede the Russia investigation.In a statement reported by NBC News, White House press secretary SarahHuckabee Sanders blasted The Times report as “absurd.”
“James Comey was fired because he’s a disgraced partisan hack,” she said,according to NBC.
“Unlike President Obama, who let Russia and other foreign adversaries pushAmerica around, President Trump has actually been tough on Russia.”Comey’sfiring in 2017 is a focal point of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’sinvestigation into whether Trump attempted to obstruct the probe into tiesbetween the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016presidential election.
Trump and his allies have offered a series of changing explanations for hisdecision to fire Comey, which has complicated investigators’ effort todetermine his intent. The firing of Comey was reportedly used asjustification for the investigation being opened, but FBI agents hadalready been concerned about the president’s ties to Russia, the Timesreported.
The Russia investigation was taken over by Mueller when he was appointedspecial counsel.“The fact that it goes back a year and a half and nothingcame of it that showed a breach of national security means they foundnothing,” President’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told the Times for its report. -APP