This seems like a big escalation in the Trump/Russia investigation story. Late Wednesday, the FBI said it has evidence that associates of Donald Trump communicated with Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, possibly to coordinate the release of Hillary Clinton campaign info via Wikileaks.
CNN reported this evening that this was what FBI Director James Comey was talking about on Monday, when he announced before Congress the Bureau is investigating links between Russia and Trump's political and family business teams.
From CNN, which based its reports on unnamed inside sources close to the FBI investigation:
The FBI is now reviewing that information, which includes human intelligence, travel, business and phone records and accounts of in-person meetings, according to those U.S. officials. The information is raising the suspicions of FBI counterintelligence investigators that the coordination may have taken place, though officials cautioned that the information was not conclusive and that the investigation is ongoing.
In his statement on Monday Comey said the FBI began looking into possible coordination between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives because the bureau had gathered "a credible allegation of wrongdoing or reasonable basis to believe an American may be acting as an agent of a foreign power."
The White House did not comment and the FBI declined to comment.
Schiff, on House Intel Committee, says there's "more than circumstantial evidence" of Trump camp collusion w/Russia pic.twitter.com/AKfkQzj0iK
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 23, 2017
[via Anthony deRosa]
