The FBI reportedly probed whether Trump worked for Russia after he fired James Comey
After President Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey, the FBI opened an investigation into whether Trump was secretly acting in Russian interests against the United States, The New York Times reported Friday evening, citing unnamed sources.
The probe was specifically prompted by Trump's repeated public linkage of the firing to the investigation into Russian election meddling, the Times story says, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller took over the FBI inquiry when he was appointed. The original probe had counterintelligence and criminal components, considering whether Trump threatened national security and whether the Comey firing obstructed justice.
A Friday statement from White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the reported probe "absurd" and said Trump has taken a hard line toward Russia. Trump himself responded Saturday, describing the Times report as a story of his own persecution:
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In subsequent tweets, he defended the Comey firing and claimed Comey and Mueller have a close relationship:
Comey has said he "admires" Mueller but they are "not friends in any social sense." Read the full New York Times report here.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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