OXON HILL, Md. — White House officials pushed back Friday on reports that suggested West Wing staff had wrongfully asked the FBI to intervene with reporters writing about President Trump’s associates and their alleged contacts with Russian officials during the campaign.
“What you guys have done is indefensible and inaccurate,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Friday of a CNN report published the previous evening. The report had cited unnamed officials in its account of the back-and-forth between a West Wing eager to knock down stories about Trump staffers’ alleged relationships with Russian officials and an FBI unwilling to break its longstanding policy of withholding comment on pending investigations.
Senior administration officials laid out a timeline of events that deviated from the characterization that had been reported, arguing the White House had only inquired about the FBI’s ability to challenge negative stories after the FBI raised private objections to them.
Officials said Reince Priebus, White House chief of staff, spoke privately with FBI Assistant Director Andrew McCabe on Feb. 15 about stories, including one in the New York Times, related to an investigation of the Trump team’s Russia ties. The administration officials said McCabe had called the Times story “bullsh—t” during the brief conversation, which occurred after an unrelated meeting, the officials said.
According to the senior administration officials, Priebus then asked whether anything could be done to combat the story, and McCabe had offered to look into the options. Later, McCabe and FBI Director James Comey had clarified to Priebus that they could not comment publicly — or even on background — on the story despite their private acknowledgments that the story was overblown.
The administration officials’ public description of the events behind the CNN story marked a departure from its usual strategy of criticizing stories they view as inaccurate without endeavoring to clarify the underlying issues.
According to the CNN report in question, White House officials had violated government procedures by asking law enforcement officials to knock down a politically damaging story.
Trump aides have long denied reports that they maintained inappropriate ties to Russian officials during the 2016 campaign.
