Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Wednesday that the role of the FBI is being misunderstood in regard to any investigation into President-elect Trump’s ties to Russia.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Cotton said that the FBI functions as the U.S. counter-intelligence agency. So it is typical, and hardly explosive, that the FBI would be looking into reports that Russia might have damaging information on Trump or even be cultivating a relationship with him.
Part of the reason the FBI does this, Cotton said, is to warn U.S. political leaders and decision makers about attempts to compromise them — and so they can fight back against what are ongoing espionage attempts by foreign powers. Regular targets include presidents, key cabinet officials, members of congress and other decision makers.
“The FBI is our counter-intelligence agency — domestically in the United States,” Cotton said. “It is their long-standing custom to try to thwart those espionage efforts. The FBI would not be doing its job if it was not looking into claims by a hostile foreign power that it had compromising material — that it had other kinds of efforts to coerce or intimidate decision makers.”
Cotton, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, defended the U.S. intelligence community against charges by Trump that it has leaked information about Trump to the press.
The senator said that the pattern of the leaks suggest to him that they originated in President Obama’s White House.
“I suspect these leaks are not coming from our intelligence community but rather are coming from the West Wing, if you look at the pattern of the leaks,” Cotton said. “It occurred in December and occurred last week when the report was delivered to the West Wing — and now this leak about what was briefed to Donald Trump.”
According to reporting by CNN, Trump and Obama were both recently briefed about compromising information that the Russian government might have on the president-elect. Obama and Trump were both told that the information was unsubstantiated, but the intelligence community wanted the president-elect, in particular, to be aware of its existence.
CNN did not publish the unsubstantiated information. But another organization did. Cotton, an attorney, said he believes that media outlet broke U.S. libel law and could be successfully sued.
“The publication of these unsubstantiated reports is scurrilous,” Cotton said. “I think it approaches the standard of reckless disregard for the truth under American libel law as established by New York Times v. Sullivan.”
Cotton was referring to New York Times Company v. Sullivan, a major U.S. Supreme Court case from 1964 that established the legal grounds for a public official suing a media outlet for libel and defamation.
Trump on Wednesday called any suggestions of impropriety “fake news” and a complete fabrication. He criticized CNN for its report, as well as the organization that published the unproven allegations.
“I have no dealings with Russia. I have no deals in Russia,” Trump said.
