James Comey has confirmed that the FBI is probing possible links between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Kremlin, an unprecedented public acknowledgment that pits the top US law enforcement agency against a sitting president.
Mr Comey, the FBI director, also said the bureau had “no information” that supported tweets written by Mr Trump contending that his predecessor, Barack Obama, was “wiretapping” his campaign before the November election.
The two assertions before the House intelligence committee are a severe setback to the White House’s efforts to put the mounting scandal surrounding Mr Trump’s ties to Russia behind it.