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FBI DIRECTOR JAMES Comey confirmed for the first time today that the agency is investigating Russian interference in last year’s presidential election and notably Moscow’s possible collusion with President Donald Trump’s campaign.
The FBI “is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election,” Comey told a hearing by the House Intelligence Committee.
“And that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts,” he said.
Comey’s disclosure confirmed longstanding reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was probing the explosive charges that Trump’s stunning election victory over Hillary Clinton last November came on the back of Russian meddling.
US intelligence chiefs said in January they were convinced that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind that effort.
But they had not commented on whether they were examining links between members of Trump’s campaign and Russian officials.
Republican committee chair Devin Nunes opened today’s hearing – the first public hearing into the issue – by saying the panel had “seen no evidence to date that officials from any campaign conspired with Russian agents.”
But Adam Schiff, the Democratic vice chair of the committee, detailed a list of alleged links and communications between the Trump team and Russia.
“Is it possible that all of these events and reports are completely unrelated, and nothing more than an entirely unhappy coincidence? Yes, it is possible,” he said.
“But it is also possible, maybe more than possible, that they are not coincidental, not disconnected and not unrelated, and that the Russians used the same techniques to corrupt US persons that they have employed in Europe and elsewhere.”
Wiretapping
Comey also shot down Trump’s tweeted claims that his predecessor Barack Obama had wiretapped the phones at Trump Tower ahead of the election.
“With respect to the president’s tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets,” Comey told the US congressional intelligence panel.
National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers also strongly rebutted the suggestion, repeated by Trump’s administration, that the NSA had asked Britain’s GCHQ intelligence agency to spy on the US president.
“That would be expressly against the construct of the Five Eyes agreement that’s been in place for decades,” Rogers told the hearing, referring to the intelligence network grouping the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
The combined remarks were perhaps the strongest on-record repudiation yet by senior government officials of the president’s extraordinary accusation against Obama.
Comey described the “rigorous” US statutory framework, which involves all three branches of government, under which courts grant permission for electronic surveillance.
Asked by the committee’s top Democrat, Adam Schiff, whether Obama could have unilaterally ordered a wiretap of anyone, Comey responded: “No president could.”
Trump created a firestorm early this month in a series of accusatory tweets.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” Trump tweeted.
Last Friday, he repeated his claim, rejecting rising calls from Republicans and Democrats to withdraw the charge and apologise.
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What the Journal has done with its change to the comments section is an attempt to silence the zeitgeist. It was never the Journal, the author’s narrative nor the depth and weight of the commentator’s contributions that gave the true sense of the national conscious but rather the ability of every reader to approve or disapprove of comments about a story. This anonymous binary contribution of the unchecked flock formed the majority of reportage feedback and was fairly unique in the media. It gave you a sense of where you stood amongst your peers on a wide range of subjects, and that is something of value.
If the Journal cannot roll back and reinstate the previous system I hope another comes along to pounce on the opportunity presented, one that is unafraid of the zeitgeist, with enough confidence in their standing not to want to control the narrative as this sanitised approval only safe space ‘upgrade’ is drab beyond words.
Coffee anyone?
@Revolting Peasant:
Or alternatively, the Journal comments section was “a sewer”, as Blindboy said.
Full of libelous, actionable comments on a daily basis and completely unsustainable.
If you think the anonymous, vicious bullying (from all sides) was the “zeitgeist”, I’m sure you can find similarly nasty places elsewhere on the internet to vent.
@Revolting Peasant: You hit the nail on the head sir!
@Revolting Peasant: Care to explain how you are being silenced, while you’re on here, spouting your BS?
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Read the new t&c of the new update you might get an idea.
@Revolting Peasant: oh shut up.
@Revolting Peasant: It’s just like living in North Korea.
@Brinster: red thumbing/disagreeing is bullying and libellous? sounds like yer typical hypocritical liberal (or Paul Murphys facebook page agenda) I’d hate to disagree with a dictatorship mindset. This whole agenda is liberal bias but… as I said already it’s much easier now to see the big green thumbs up of support for those who disagree with illogical thought patterns and watch the low thumb counts on the opinions that are not very popular. Big green cheers!
@Brinster: red thumbing/disagreeing is bullying and libellous? sounds like yer typical hypocritical liberal (or Paul Murphys facebook page agenda) I’d hate to disagree with a dictatorship mindset. This whole agenda is liberal bias but… as I said already it’s much easier now to see the big green thumbs up of support for those who disagree with illogical thought patterns and watch the low thumb counts on the opinions that are not very popular. Big green cheers!
@Revolting Peasant: LMFAO drama queen! The new update is far better than the stale old popularity contest
@Niamh Kenneally: It’s just like it…..if you are snowflake generation with your head in the clouds
@Soccer T’s: Maybe Amnesty could get involved.
@Revolting Peasant: yes please you must have seen U tube ..racist coffee
The previous Journal comments area facilitated bullying by various groupings, especially of the political ilk, and it was also unfriendly to female users. Contributers are now obliged to make relevant and intelligent comments to gain support. Maybe it’s time for the discontented to find new pastimes.
@winston smith: some of the bully’s are still here. But I haven’t any comments for arch bully For Connolly since the update.
@Revolting Peasant: Hilarious how the red thumb brigade are missing their little red thumbs…
@Brinster: its more the fact that nobody is pointing out the irony of the “silenced” getting to the top comment on nearly every article that’s killing me even more than the moaning! Heh
@Revolting Peasant: The old comments section was a circle jerk of abuse and trolling. This is an improvment
@Barry Somers: I don’t see how removing ted thumbs makes any difference to abuse and trolling. The comments policy remains largely the same: don’t be abusive, mind the profanity, stay on topic etc.. Only having green thumbs will present a quantitative indicator of only one side of the readership’s opinion; the use of red thumbs with green gave a far more balanced representation of audience attitides to the article. Many would choose not to comment if, for example, the point had already been made to their satisfaction; maybe they don’t have time etc.. Why should we not be allowed express disapproval in the same way as support? It was better the way it was, they should’ve left it alone. A much more worthy change might have been to recruit some proper journalists..
Dumbing down the comments section with the new Green Thumb only option is proof that the Journal don’t like the fact that the comments section is usually more relevant than the story.
The general mood of the public is there for all to see under a fair Red/Green thumb system as those comments that resonate with most people stay close to the top of the page so why change a great format that works unless the Journal don’t like that fact that the old comments system is not only engaging people to comment, but also educating people and ultimately waking the masses up to what’s going on under the bonnet once you strip away the carefully controlled and manipulated tripe that’s spewed out from the likes of RTE and Sky News!
We can’t have that can we. The Internet must be controlled, we can’t have the plebs getting any ideas above their station. Keep them dumb and keep them ignorant, what a joke the Journal has become.
@Super Ted: dumbing down, or making people actually use words to express their grievance? The red thumb was an easy out. Disagree? Fine, say why and actually have a constructive back and forth.
@Super Ted: I didn’t really see any evidence of red thumbs facilitating any of that. I’ve seen many a well-made point getting red thumbed to hell. What kind of consciousness-raising does that suggest?
I wonder what would’ve happened if the FBI had done that 11 days before the presidential election.
@Mick Tobin: But… but… Her Emails ….
@Mick Tobin: it’s obvious now why trump was making such a fuss about them.
@Dave Thomas:
So there is no proof yet of trumps & co’s so called Russian Tie’s.
Even do From reading all the articles relating to this you would automatically assume he has ties.
That’s some A1 Reporting right there.
@SomeRandomIrishGuy: Think that is why they are investigating, rather than convicting Trump.
Step 1 – Check for evidence, links, correlations, unusual coincidences, patterns. Review to see if full investigation required.
Step 2 – If so, conduct full investigation into any evidence found. Interview witnesses, people of note.
Step 3 – Determine if charges should be pressed.
Fairly straightforward really.
@Brinster: @Brinster: I totally understand what you are saying. But going by what we have all seen, You would automatically assume he has ties.
@SomeRandomIrishGuy:
Yes – we’ll have to wait and see.
Certainly makes it interesting though!
@SomeRandomIrishGuy: He has loads of them, Made in China and You can buy one off him. Go to his Florida retreat, play golf and get an audience with the clown.
@Stephen murphy: See there’s the problem. You are making Politics personal in a way it shouldn’t be.
You should learn to keep them both separate bud.
@Brinster:
Translation: We have all of this super secret evidence, but we can’t show it to you, so we’ll give you reports with broad and baseless assertions. Trust us. What could possibly go wrong?
WMDs in Iraq anyone?
good. the sooner this incompetent manbaby is removed, the better. an embarrassment for the US and a backward step for progress, both scientifically and environmentally. crackpot whitehouse.
@QhpFny3o: he’ll be gone in a few weeks. He’s on the slippery slope.
@Jimmyjoe Wallace: the question is, who’ll succeed him? Born again Pence may just turn out worse
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Spot on Larissa….there’s worse hiding in the wings!
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: I’m afraid you might be right Larissa, though bad and all as Pence is, I don’t think he’s mentally ill like Trump is.
So? Doesn’t mean they’ve found any links, just that they are investigating to see if there was any.
@Eamonn: Well that didn’t seem to matter when it was Clinton.
@Eamonn: You mean like they were doing to Clinton ? Apparently an investigation is enough for Trump to ” lock her up”… Surely it’s enough for him to step aside.. at least until the investigation is concluded. And there is provision for a president to step aside.
@James: Leaving Mike Pence in charge. Yay!
@Ben McArthur: There’s provision for him to step aside as well leaving the speaker of the house Paul Ryan in charge.
@James: no there isn’t, VP is 2nd in line of succession, if VP is incapacitated or there is no VP, then the speaker is next, then the Senate Pro Tempore
@James: If it’s enough for him to step-aside, She should have to in the run up to the election.
*She should have in the run up to the election
@Alan Brogan: That’s what I mean. The VP goes or steps aside and then it’s the Speaker.The VP can also step aside as acting president and given the possible connections within the Trump campaign team to Russian intelligence he’d have to. It’s never been tested but everyone can technically step aside all the way down to Secretary of Homeland Security… I believe after that it could technically go down as far as high ranking Post Office officials. I’d imagine though it Trump were to go Congress would probably vote to trigger a new election.
@SomeRandomIrishGuy: If Clinton should have stepped aside during the election then Trump certainly should now… That’s the point… That was Trumps point… That an investigation made her unsuitable for president….
@James: But there are no current links relating trump & his admin to Russia. It was a complete different story with Hillary.
@SomeRandomIrishGuy: Of course it was different with Clinton… She wasn’t being investigated for colluding with a foreign government…. This investigation makes Clinton’s emails look like texts between teenagers…
“But her emails though”
@Niamh Kenneally: oh Niamh it was never her emails which were extensively investigated.
A lot of the people who backed Hillary are known for there undemocratic ideas & policies, Even Hillary her self. The American government are so far away from democracy right now it’s hard to see it ever getting back to normal.
@Alan Scott
@SomeRandomIrishGuy: And Trump is democracy personified?
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Go back & read my comment again. I said “the American Government is so far from democracy right now”.
Having listened to the live feed from the hearing it’s very partisan but it really doesn’t look good for Trump especially when the numerous Mike Flynn interactions with the Russian officials was revealed and combined with the apparently illegal receipt of some $35,000 for a trip to celebrate an RT event I can’t see how that won’t end in a criminal investigation as it’s apparently specifically prohibited for former government officials to do so. This fine mess is getting worse in my view and there’s a long way to go.
If Putin was backing Trump getting poor return…Trump plans to increase US defence budget by $50 billion…Gets NATO members to increase contribution…More US troops in Syria…It was the arms race that destroyed the old Soviet Union…
True, I think Putin liked (past tense) Trump because of his autocratic style that meant that his own position would be less obvious. I think now Vlad might be sorry he managed to detail Hilary
@John003: US intelligence seems to think the Russian motive is to discredit democracy and the demorcatic process in the US. In this view Putin wasn’t backing Trump in hopes of getting pragmatic advantages but in hopes of getting a fool who would make a joke of the presidency. If so, Putin backed a winner.
How did he even win the election? He was losing up till a fre
@Amanda Scott: He won because the electoral college voted him in. Instead of Hillary.. I think Hillary got the majority of public votes do.
@SomeRandomIrishGuy: The irony is that the electoral college was meant to make sure a “nutter” wouldn’t be elected. The electoral college was meant to have a free choice vote. The individual states fkd it all up by making it an all-for-one party based on the state’s popular vote. This is how a person can win the popular but lose the election.
@Jeff M. Sullivan: I understand why electoral college is there for,
So why did they go against Hillary Clinton even do she won the public.
There was obviously a bigger worry amongst the electoral college members if Hillary & her posse was to get in, Rather than trump.
You said it mate the Irony is brutal.
@Jeff M. Sullivan: unfortunately the electoral college only had nutters to choose from and Trump, was less nutty than killary klingon, anyway she has the Clinton foundation to keep her going.
@SomeRandomIrishGuy:
You have it mixed up, if you are most popular in a certain state you win the amount of seats designated to that state. Hillary won New York and California by hundreds of thousands but she lost other states by small amounts. So overall Trump got less share of the vote overall but won about 5 times the amount of voting counties than Hillary.
@Maurice Bourke: Thanks for clearing that up Im a tad tired, On the road all day, It’s tiring work lol
@SomeRandomIrishGuy: by close on 3 million votes!
Jesus the American people vote for him now are looking at any excuse to get him out,what a joke of a country,democracy my arse,he won the election so leave him at it#fake news,and ppl giving out about no thumbs down just reply to that person message with thumbs the journal will get fed up and bring it back
@Colin hoop:
Mmmm…I love the smell of impeachment in the morning!
You’re still dreamIng Georgie, time to wake up and think for yourself.
@George Sheils: I will literally give you everything I own if he gets impeached hehe
@SomeRandomIrishGuy: If I were you, I wouldn’t make statements lkke this, your anonymity isn;t half as secure as you might think. So, in case of an impeachment of 45, George could take you up on your offer, and you’ll look the fool.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: We I’ll talk again so when it happens :)
@ Paul : You are mixing this up with an incident involving Obama.
Barack Obama microphone gaffe: ‘I’ll have more flexibility after election’
President Barack Obama was caught on microphone telling Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more flexibility after November’s election to deal with contentious issues such as missile defence.
@Pat O’Dwyer: Such deception lately is brutal. People seriously should start making sure what they say is has not been twisted right around! Stockholm syndrome Yano
@Pat O’Dwyer: I don’t suppose that it matters to you that the news report is dated to 2012 presidential elections. The Russian media machine is on a slow burn trawling the bottom of the barrel for fake news.
Well 2017 is gonna be interesting to say the least
Cyber attacks are a act of war and natio article 5 can in invoked as far as I know. If trump did get Russian help then it’s a blow to the democratic system that the United States and indeed we have and some parts of the world
@alan scott: To be fair it’s not like the US has never carried out it’s own cyber attacks it’s just that now they may or may not be on the other end.
@alan scott: So if I attack an American .gov website, Its a declaration of war.
Damn why so serious lol
@alan scott: Cuts both ways do you honestly believe the US has not hacked anyone? Has not concocted lies to go to war? That they are a true democracy that we are based on? that they are great? Because what we are seeing here is the AMERICAN dream – a lie. And for the record America would NOT nor NEVER would go to war with Russia because it is curtains for us all, even the mighty US of A.
@Amanda Scott how did he win in the first place? Up till a few days before the election he was losing!
Didn’t they catch Trump telling the Russians, that he’ll have more influence after his elected…….
@Paul: No
@Paul: That was Obama, King of Lies & deceit.
Exactly Mark, just don’t remember any investigation of the Obama administration.
Trump v FBI. My money’s going on the FBI.
He has the ties to Russia. What is not known yet is what did he offer in order to get the emails? Change in Republican party platform on the Ukraine (It was changed at his insistence)? A promise to go after NATO to try to weaken that alliance by questioning funding (He’s doing that)? A promise to lift sanctions.
How did his guy Rodgers know about the hack before anyone else??
Yeah it’s getting interesting..
@Peggy Webster: You won’t get up onto the grassy knoll Peggy its full, full of crap.
@Austin Rock: The actions by the Trump boys ae documented – as I said we shall wait to see what they find. The fact they are working so hard to distract and downplay is fun to watch. As the chess champion Garry Kasparov said – there is a fire and a guy running around with matches and all the Republicans can talk about is who called the Fire Department. It is entertaining for sure. But I don’t think the Russians ae laughing right now.
In other more important news. David Rockefeller is dead. Best news in ages!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Melanie Vasquez: Somebody will just replace his position. Same old same old.
@Melanie Vasquez: why is it good news that David Rockefeller is dead?
@John003: because she’s in the will.
Oh Donald..
so 5 months later the slime trails, innuendo’s and fake news means the FBI still hasn’t found what its looking for? I suggest they check for the Trump Tower wiretap, the farcical Russian election hacking in the same place they filed the Weapons of Mass Deception scam that they used to ruin the Middle East and kill thousands to perpetrate a terrible lie. The laughter in the Kremlin must be reaching a crescendo, and all across Europe they wonder how they are hooked up to this montrosity that is now the US of A. Post US of A the World will be a much better place.
@Austin Rock: Love it
A serious case of the pot and the kettle with this Russian affair. Also, the notion that the US president cannot have someone tapped if they so wish is simply absurd. Legally, maybe so but it didn’t stop them tapping Angela Merkel’s communications. Who authorised them to do that? Of course it was sanctioned at presidential level or those responsible would be in prison by now. If the president tells you to surveil someone or you’d never with again or have an unfortunate accident. Americans are so pompous about their system but it stinks to high heaven
“Both intelligence chiefs said that Russia had made its intervention in last year’s election campaign unusually obvious, perhaps to further its aim of undermining US democracy.” – WOW – and so obvious that the two Intelligence agencies still haven’t found the link.
Oh Donal
Good old Donald
This a good thing as once it is concluded the Democrats will have to face the issues that they lost on. NYT January 19th article on wiretapping still has to be verified one way or the other.
Poor deprived Thumbs-Downers. You can always insert one into your texts, showing us who the trolls are! https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTJ1LeqKbwlf4Rq8p91guKFSRixvxNy54KQt3OXwDpr2s1Ch6Py
A lot of Irish people help Trump win with cash donations. Why are they not investigated.
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