James Comey, the FBI director that voiced concern over Hillary Clinton's private email use a week before the election, is going to investigate Donald Trump and possible Russian electoral interference.
Comey took the astonishing step on Monday of making a rare Public Announcement about the matter, highlighting the concerns many share over Trump's possible collusion with #Russia. Comey isn't one to hide from public notoriety; it was he who some critics claimed changed the course of the 2016 elections by announcing that Clinton's use of private email was in fact injudicious.
Comey’s latest proclamation before the House Intelligence Committee is ushering in a rocky political landscape in which Mr Trump is increasingly losing his footing. The president has insisted that the Russia murmurs are "fake news" and that it was a discomfiture created falsely by #political enemies eager to undermine his legitimacy and his presidency.
Counterintelligence investigation
Comey, in announcing the matter to the #Intelligence House Committee, has opened up a shocking new criminal investigation right at the center of the White House. In saying that his agents will pursue it “no matter how long that takes”, Comey is taking square aim at President Trump.
The FBI director also discredited Trump’s assertion that he was wiretapped by Obama during the 2016 presidential campaign, an unsubstantiated accusation that has distracted the public and had plenty of critics reacting in shock, something that could have served as a grand distraction to the pressing issue of #Russian election interference.
Various media outlets such as The New York Times have reported on the possible presence of an investigation into #Russia communications with the Trump campaign, but until now the White House has dismissed those reports as biased and sought allies to rebut such claims.
Public knowledge of the case
Comey’s testimony on Monday was the first time that the public heard of the case and it has been met with astonishment and a degree of shock.
Indeed, this is the first time that a president has been investigated by the #FBI so early in his presidency. Also, the FBI unusually only discloses its inquiries in rare circumstances when they think it is the public's interest to know. “This is one of those circumstances,” Mr Comey told the press.
Classed as a #counterintelligence investigation, one of the most challenging and time consuming cases of all, a federal investigation like this will surely act as a dampener to Trump's presidency and could hamper his administration for years.
Russia had orders to hamper Hillary Clinton
Back in January, US intelligence agencies determined that #Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, had personally established a clandestine directive to hamper Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the US election.This effort included hacking of governmental targets such as the Democratic National Committee and also the publication of humiliating emails through the website WikiLeaks.
The FBI, according to Comey, were “investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government," and they are researching whether there was any apparent coordination taking place between the campaign and Russia’s exertions to #interfere.
