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Trump-Russia hearing live: FBI director Comey confirms investigation into Trump campaign Russia hearing live: FBI director Comey says no information to confirm Trump's wiretap claims
(35 minutes later)
2.54pm GMT 3.27pm GMT
14:54 15:27
Republicans focus on how intelligence about Michael Flynn emerged Republicans harp on leaks as danger to national security
Now Rooney turns specifically to General Flynn, the former national security adviser whose career fell apart when it emerged he had been having contact with the Russian ambassador he’d denied having. Gowdy: “If there are 100 people who have the ability to unmask.... then that’s 100 different potential sources of an investigation...”
He asks who would unmask General Flynn if he was under surveillance. Rogers says he could do it or 19 others could do it, within the NSA. He’s asked whether former director of national intelligence James Clapper or others would be able to unmask Flynn. “What other US government agencies have the authority to unmask a US citizen’s name?”
Would leaking of a US person who has been unmasked and disseminated.. would that leaking to the press hurt or help our conduct of intelligence... Comey: NSA, CIA, FBI, I don’t know for sure beyond that. Oh yeah, “main justice” meaning the justice department. And “consumers of our products can ask the maskers to unmask... the White House can make similar requests.. but they can’t on their own collect, so they can’t on their own unmask.”
Rogers says “hurt.” Gowdy: How would you begin your investigation of a leak? Where would you begin?
Rooney: Would such a leak harm national security? Comey: First ask who touched the information. Then use investigative tools and techniques.
Rogers: Yes. Gowdy: Did Clapper know Flynn’s name?
Rooney: Why would someone leak the identity of a US person? Comey: Can’t say.
Rogers: No idea. We do not engage in this activity on principle. Gowdy: Would he have access?
Rooney: “For those who break that sacred trust, if they are not held accountable.. it is very difficult for us to be able to keep that sacred trust.” Comey: Maybe.
2.50pm GMT Gowdy: Former CIA directer John Brennan? Former national security adviser Susan Rice? Former White House adviser Ben Rhodes? Former attorney general Loretta Lynch? Acting AG Sally Yates?
14:50 Comey: Not going to discuss / I don’t know.
We just heard that the FBI is investigating associates of the president (the president himself?) for election-year ties to Russia. The first questions, however – from the Republicans who control the committee – don’t touch on that historic news, instead focusing on the mechanics of intelligence collection and leaks: Gowdy: Did you brief Obama on Flynn?
Right after the FBI confirms probe that has been reported on through leaks, hearing pivots to focusing on said leaks, not said probe Comey: Not gonna answer that.
True colors of committee Republicans shining through https://t.co/i7EU5nf3CG 3.21pm GMT
2.46pm GMT 15:21
14:46 Late July is when Comey says FBI's Trump/Russia inquiry began.
Transcript: Comey confirms investigation At time of pivotal Comey letter on Clinton email, FBI had been investigating Trump campaign links to Russia for three months.
James Comey's statement acknowledging @FBI investigation into Trump campaign, Russia, 2016 meddling "& whether there was any coordination." pic.twitter.com/Ry3Vvbszv8
2.45pm GMT
14:45
#FF
NSA's Rogers, translated: if you cut back our key authorities (Sec702 & EO 12333), you'll regret it.
2.43pm GMT
14:43
Tom Rooney, Republican of Florida, the chairman of the subcommittee overseeing NSA, is asking Rogers about the rules pertaining to the surveillance of a US person (the designation includes US corporations ... thanks Mitt Romney!). Rogers is describing the rules and how carefully the NSA follows them.
UpdatedUpdated
at 2.45pm GMT at 3.22pm GMT
2.39pm GMT 3.20pm GMT
14:39 15:20
Nunes says he’s very concerned about “widespread illegal leaks.” He asks Comey whether those leaks violate the law. Now it’s back to the Republican side, and Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor.
“Yes,” Comey says. Nunes wants it on the record. Gowdy is in charge of hammering on the villainy of the leaks that first revealed Michael Flynn’s secret conversations with Sergey Kislyak and other Trump camp ties to Russia.
2.37pm GMT Gowdy is trying to get Comey to say that reporters are as culpable in the event of leaks of classified material as leakers. He’s also pressing on how reporters would find out classified material.
14:37 “Somebody told them who shouldn’t have told them,” Comey explains.
Russia did not change vote tallies in swing states – intelligence chiefs 3.17pm GMT
Nunes asks Rogers, citing 6 January 2017 intelligence report that found Russia did not attack systems involved in vote tallying, whether: 15:17
Did Russia change vote totals in Michigan? Wow.
Pennsylvania?
Wisconsin?
Florida?
North Carolina?
Ohio?
All “No, Sirs” from Rogers.
No intelligence that suggests any votes were changed?
No.
Comey also says no.
Updated
at 2.38pm GMT
2.36pm GMT
14:36
“Leaks of classified information are serious, serious crimes,” Comey says.
2.34pm GMT
14:34
Comey confirms FBI investigation into Trump campaign links to Russia during election
Here’s Comey. Bombshell confirmation right off the top:
“Our practice is not to confirm existence of ongoing investigations,” he begins (cough Clinton’s emails cough). “But in unusual circumstances where it is in the public interest” we go public, he says.
Then he announces:
I have been authorized by the DoJ to confirm that the FBI ... is investigating the Russian government’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 election ... That includes any links between the Trump campaign ... This will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed.
He calls it an “open, ongoing investigation”.
Updated
at 2.47pm GMT
2.31pm GMT
14:31
NSA director: 'I welcome your investigation'
Rogers, the NSA director, in his opening statement, notes that the intelligence community had concluded that Russia had sought to tamper with cyberattacks in the US election: “There is no change in our confidence level on the assessment.”
Rogers: “I welcome your investigation of Russian activities ... in the elections.”
Updated
at 2.47pm GMT
2.27pm GMT
14:27
Spencer AckermanSpencer Ackerman
Splits between the Republican and Democratic membership were evident from the very start of the hearing. Chairman Devin Nunes, a Republican and a member of Trump’s transition team, reiterated that two terms of the committee’s focus are on terrain favorable to the White House: whether Trump’s team was placed under “improper surveillance,” as Trump has alleged since 4 March, and exposing leakers within the government and the intelligence agency that have contradicted Trump on ties to Russia. Guardian national security editor Spencer Ackerman on “an extraordinary development” at the hearing:
Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the panel, sought to keep the focus on the election hack itself, arguing that the US will be subject to a repeat in future elections without exposure. If Trump or his people cooperated with Russia’s so-called “active measures”, Schiff said, “it would represent one of the most shocking betrayals of democracy in history.” The leaks that Republicans are citing as damaging to the Trump administration are having an effect that for years was unthinkable: threatening the reauthorization of a key NSA authority for mass surveillance.
They agreed on one topic: calling Trump’s accusation that Obama had Trump Tower surveilled baseless. Schiff said there is “no evidence whatsoever to support that slanderous accusation,” and Nunes – who suggested other “improper” surveillance on Trump may have occurred – said: “We know there was not a physical wiretap of Trump Tower.” That authority is known as Section 702. Created in 2008, it is the wellspring of legal authorization for NSA’s Prism program and its “Upstream” vacuuming of data transiting over the internet. All this occurs without warrants, and, though ostensibly targeting foreign activity oversees, necessarily involves the “incidental” collection of Americans’ communications.
Updated Section 702 is up for reauthorization in December. Civil libertarians want it to die on 31 December. Ron Wyden, a Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, has fought unsuccessfully for years for the NSA to disclose how many Americans’ communications have been swept up under 702.
at 2.49pm GMT Republicans on the intelligence committees are typically the champions of 702. That was before leaks that Trump has attributed to the intelligence agencies concerning his team’s ties to Russia undermined Trump’s lines that all this is malicious politicized claims.
2.26pm GMT Trey Gowdy, formerly of the Benghazi inquiry, said the leaks “jeopardize Americans’ trust in the surveillance programs.” Florida Republican Tom Rooney, who said he supports 702, said “it is very difficult to keep that sacred trust” should the NSA discover that it leaked Michael Flynn or anyone else’s name and didn’t hold anyone accountable. Chairman Devin Nunes has already speculatedthat 702 may not be reauthorized.
14:26 This is an extraordinary development. The Snowden revelations, of mass surveillance that implicated the privacy of ordinary Americans, did not budge anyone on the committees, Democrat or Republican, off support for 702. Causing the resignation of Trump’s national security adviser, it turns out, might.
Julian Borger A supreme irony in all of this is that should NSA have collected Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s conversation with Flynn, it wouldn’t have done it under 702, but under a different component of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. NSA director Mike Rogers gingerly clarified that collection within the United States falls under a different authority (title 1 of FISA, to specify).
Schiff spends a lot of his opening remarks on Christopher Steele’s dossier. That strikes me as significant. He would know enough to know if it has been totally debunked by the US intelligence committee. 3.15pm GMT
For more on Steele: 15:15
2.24pm GMT Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut, is up.
14:24 Himes wonders whether “Russian hacking” refers to the fact that the intelligence community believes that Russians penetrated DNC and Podesta, stole info and disseminated it.
Schiff outlines Trump camp ties to Russia: is it possible that this was a coincidence? Is that a fair characterization?
Schiff lays out the case for ties between the Trump camp and Russian intelligence. Yes sir, says Rogers.
What was happening in July-August last year? Were US persons involved? But Rogers did not analyze whether that activity affected the election outcome.
In July, Carter Page... [Trump adviser] travels to Moscow and gives a speech critical of the Trump campaign, and met the former head of Russian gas giant Rosneft, a Putin confidant, who may have offered Page a sweetheart deal of some kind, according to former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. Of course you didn’t, Himes said. Next question: Was there any equivalent stolen information from the RNC or Trump?
Mid-July: Paul Manafort attempts GOP convention. Page, back from Moscow, also attends. According to Steele, it was Manafort who chose Page. Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak meets at convention with Page and Trump adviser JD Gordon, and with now-attorney general Jeff Sessions. GOP platform is changed, deleting language of support for providing weapons to Ukrainian forces. Comey answers flatly, No. Not, “not that we know of.” Comey says there was no equivalent theft on the Trump side.
Later in July: first Wikileaks emails pertaining to Clinton’s campaign emerge. Intelligence agencies conclude the attacks were a Russian effort. 3.12pm GMT
Late July: Trump praises Wikileaks and invites hackers to go after Clinton’s emails. 15:12
August: Roger Stone boasts that he is in touch with Julian Assange and that more documents were coming. Schiff for Comey:
August: Stone predicts Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta will have his time “in the barrel” – his emails published. “Stone shows remarkable prescience.” Do you know who Roger Stone is? Do you know he associated with Paul Manafort? Are you aware that he has publicly acknowledged communicating with Guccifer 2 (the hacker linked to Russian intelligence? How did Stone know Podesta’s emails would be released? When Podesta himself didn’t yet know he’d been hacked?
November: Trump wins election. Appoints Michael Flynn NSA. Flynn has been paid by RT and others. Flynn talks with Kislyak in December about sanctions and lies about it. Veep Mike Pence misinforms the public about it. President does nothing. Comey says he has read public accounts but can’t comment beyond that.
Schiff asks: Now is it possible that the removal of the Ukraine provision from the Republican platform was a coincidence? That Sessions failed to tell of Kislyak meeting? That Flynn lied about meeting Kislyak? That Rosneft sold a 19% share, which Page may have profited from? That Stone predicted Podesta would be hacked? 3.11pm GMT
Is it possible that all of these events and reports are completely unrelated, and nothing more than an entirely unhappy coincidence? It is possible, but it is also possible that they are not unrelated ... 15:11
We owe it to the country to find out. Rogers is asked whether he agrees with British intelligence’s assessment that it collaborated in surveillance of Trump was “nonsense” and “utterly ridiculous.”
Updated Yes, Rogers says. He agrees that the whole charge is nonsense.
at 2.53pm GMT Rogers says the charge has been an inconvenience to US-British cooperation but it has not destroyed the relationship.
2.14pm GMT 3.09pm GMT
14:14 15:09
Schiff says the committee will explore “the potential involvement of US citizens in a Russian attack on our democracy.” Comey says Obama could not have ordered a tap of Trump.
2.13pm GMT “No individual in the United States can direct electronic surveillance of anyone,” Comey says. “No president could.”
14:13 It’s Schiff questioning now. He’s quoting Trump’s tweets.
Schiff: 'We do not yet know whether the Russian operation had help from US citizens' “We do not have any information that supports those tweets,” Comey says.
Ranking Democrat Adam Schiff is reading an opening statement. He portrays the purpose of the hearing quite differently, saying “we do not yet know whether the Russian operation had help from US citizens, including people with the Trump campaign ... If the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, aided or abetted the Russians, it would not only be a serious crime, it would be one of the most shocking” betrayals of the national trust in history. Schiff is reading Trump’s wiretapping tweets in order.
We will never know whether the Russian action was determinative in such a close election...Yt does not matter... The Russians successfully meddled in our democracy, and our intelligence agencies have concluded that they will do so again. What was the gravamen of the offense by Nixon.. in Watergate.
Updated Comey: “As I recall it... the gravamen was an abuse of power, including a break-in...”
at 2.55pm GMT Schiff: “It was a break-in of Democratic headquarters, was it not? It also involved a cover-up by the president?’
2.10pm GMT Comey: Yes.
14:10 Schiff is drawing the parallel.
Nunes: 'We know there was not a physical wiretap at Trump Tower' He asks Comey, didn’t Russia break into Democratic headquarters? Comey agrees.
The House intelligence committee hearing is live. Chairman Devin Nunes of California, a Republican, is reading an opening statement. Here are the Trump tweets read by Schiff:
Nunes says the questions at hand include Russia’s tampering in the US election – and then two questions favorable to Trump: was any surveillance conducted appropriate? And where are these intelligence community leaks coming from? Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
Nunes says at the top that there was no tap of Trump Tower, as the president continues to insist. Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!
We know there was not a physical wiretap at Trump Tower. However it is possible that other surveillance technology was used against President Trump and his associates. I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!
2.07pm GMT How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
14:07 3.04pm GMT
Trump’s still tweeting, first about CNN’s polling – on a day when Galliup has showing his approval rating at 37%: 15:04
Just heard Fake News CNN is doing polls again despite the fact that their election polls were a WAY OFF disaster. Much higher ratings at Fox Comey: No information to support Trump's claim that Obama wiretapped him
Gallup poll: Trump's job approval rating drops to 37% while 58% of Americans disapprove of his performance so far https://t.co/Q9diBIGQkr pic.twitter.com/qefJGicy6e With respect to the president’s tweets about Obama wiretapping him, Comey says:
And then more misdirection on his allies’ Russia ties: I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the DoJ has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the DoJ in all its components.
What about all of the contact with the Clinton campaign and the Russians? Also, is it true that the DNC would not let the FBI in to look? 3.02pm GMT
1.49pm GMT 15:02
13:49 Now Trey Gowdy, the Republican from South Carolina, is at bat.
We’ve placed a video feed of the House select committee on intelligence hearing atop the blog. It’s due to start in 10 minutes. He says that Fisa and other surveillance programs are “intentionally designed” to preserve the privacy of US citizens.
The Gorsuch hearing starts at 11am ET. We’ll post a feed when the time comes. Gowdy to Comey, on the gravity of leaking classified material:
12.55pm GMT We are going to give you the tools and government in return promises to safeguard the privacy of US citizens. And when that agreement is broken, it violates the trust...
12:55 Gowdy has brandished the terrifying prospect of the government breaking its promise to safeguard the privacy of US citizens as it conducts surveillance.
Hello and welcome to our live-blog coverage of a high-stakes day on Capitol Hill for Donald Trump. His supreme court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, will begin what are expected to be days of testimony before the Senate. At the start of the process, Gorsuch appears to enjoy reasonable goodwill on both sides of the aisle, although Democrats have doubts and have not forgotten their Republican colleagues’ terminal stalling on Barack Obama’s last nominee, Merrick Garland.
Read further on Gorsuch:
The action the president is focused on this morning, however, is the testimony of a couple of intelligence directors, FBI director James Comey and NSA director Mike Rogers, about ties between Trump associates and Russia. The two are appearing before the House intelligence committee for the first day of its hearings into Russia’s efforts to influence last year’s presidential election.
Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said on Sunday that “there is circumstantial evidence of collusion” between the Trump team and Moscow. “There is direct evidence, I think, of deception and that’s where we begin the investigation.”
Trump denied that charge this morning on Twitter, pointing to a statement a couple of weeks ago by former director of national intelligence James Clapper that he’d seen no evidence of such collusion. (Clapper added that such evidence “could have unfolded or become available in the time after I left the government”.)
The real story that Congress, the FBI and all others should be looking into is the leaking of Classified information. Must find leaker now!
The Democrats made up and pushed the Russian story as an excuse for running a terrible campaign. Big advantage in Electoral College & lost!
Comey is also expected to face questions about Trump’s incendiary claim that Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the election, a claim that only Trump and his press secretary seem to believe. The president and Sean Spicer dug themselves further into this hole last week by seeming to endorse a Fox News item claiming British intelligence had helped with the supposed tapping, an allegation the British furiously denied and Fox News disavowed.
Read further on Comey:
In addition, Trump and his health secretary, Tom Price, have more meetings today with Republicans in an effort to get the GOP healthcare bill through a House vote expected later this week. Trump will cap the day with an evening rally in Louisville, Kentucky, to pitch the bill.