FBI investigating Trump campaign's Russia links, says no info supports Trump's wiretapping claims

At a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee, FBI Director James Comey confirmed Monday that the FBI had launched an investigation into Russian efforts to influence 2016’s presidential election and into links and coordination between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government.

“Because it is classified, I cannot say more about what we are doing and whose conduct we are investigating,” he told the committee, admitting that this would only make the disclosure frustrating. “… we will follow the facts wherever they lead.”

He also rebutted the suggestion, presented by Trump on Twitter and elsewhere, that former president Barack Obama wiretapped Trump tower during the election campaign.

“I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI,” said Comey.

“No individual in the United States can direct surveillance of another individual,” he said in response to a question about whether the President had the statutory power to do so. “…No president could.”

Asked whether he’d seen any evidence of British involvement in the alleged wiretapping, NSA director Michael Rogers, also attending the hearing, denied it unequivocally.

“That would be expressly against the construct of the Five Eyes agreement,” he said, referring to the intelligence-sharing agreement between major western powers in which the US and UK are partners.

Prompted, he agreed with the British that that it was a “ridiculous” suggestion, adding that “it frustrates a key ally of ours.”

The hearing is currently underway.