If the Russian government is trying to insert chaos into the U.S. presidential election — as unidentified FBI officials tell The New York Times — it seems to be doing a pretty good job, especially regarding Russian meddling in the election. After FBI Director James Comey unexpectedly inserted himself in the presidential race to announce new emails potentially related to Hillary Clinton's email server, some Democrats urged him to be similarly forthcoming about any investigation into Donald Trump's alleged connections to Russia.
On Monday, several news outlets reported that Comey had opposed the U.S. publicly blaming Russia for meddling in the election out of concern that doing so a month away from the election would make the FBI seem partisan. Also, Slate disclosed a story several reporters and the FBI had been chasing about odd secret communications between a Trump Organization server and servers owned by Russia's powerful Kremlin-linked Alfa Bank. FBI officials tell The New York Times that the FBI "ultimately concluded that there could be an innocuous explanation, like a marketing email or spam, for the computer contacts."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Russian government's "direct goal is not to support the election of Mr. Trump, as many Democrats have asserted, but rather to disrupt the integrity of the political system and undermine America's standing in the world more broadly," The Times reports, citing officials. At Mother Jones, David Corn reported on notes from a credible "former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence" whose sources say the "Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting, and assisting Trump for at least 5 years," and that that Russian intelligence had "compromised" Trump during his visits to Moscow and could "blackmail him." You can read Corn's report at Mother Jones and the FBI account at The New York Times.
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Trump vows new tariffs on Canada over Reagan adspeed read The ad that offended the president has Ronald Reagan explaining why import taxes hurt the economy
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Trump expands boat strikes to Pacific, killing 5 moreSpeed Read The US military destroyed two more alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters
-
Trump demands millions from his administrationSpeed Read The president has requested $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for previous federal investigations
