Trump aides deny wrongdoing in White House exchange with FBI

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.