"The Trump team has clear ties to the Russian government," Rep. John Conyers said. | AP Photo Democrats slam White House over report it asked FBI to downplay Russia stories

Prominent Democrats on Thursday ripped the Trump administration over a report that it asked Federal Bureau of Investigation officials to publicly downplay media accounts of communications between President Donald Trump's team and Russian officials.

A CNN report released Thursday night citing multiple U.S. officials said the FBI had spurned White House calls for the bureau to "knock down" news stories on potential ties between Trump campaign officials and Russia. According to the report, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus spoke with FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe about having the bureau publicly correct what the administration believed to be factually incorrect reporting.


The White House Thursday night confirmed the conversation having taken place on Feb. 15, but said that McCabe initiated the discussion with Priebus to communicate that a New York Times report a day earlier about the FBI investigating conversations between Trump campaign staffers and Russian officials was, in the FBI's view, overstating the nature of their investigation.

"To be clear, it was the FBI that contacted the White House to rebut the New York Times' story," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday night. "We merely asked them to inform journalists of the same point that they were making to us."

However, according to the CNN report, Priebus reached out later to FBI Director James Comey after McCabe explained the agency couldn't make such a public statement amid an ongoing investigation. Comey, CNN reports, also rejected Priebus' subsequent request.

Former Obama administration official and ethics czar Norm Eisen called Priebus' request "shocking" and said any such interactions between White House and intelligence officials are "forbidden," adding that had these events occurred in the previous administration Priebus would have had to resign.

"Where will [the] transgressions end?" Eisen tweeted.

House Judiciary Committee ranking member John Conyers said the report was cause for bipartisan concern, renewing a call for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from an investigation into what he called "clear ties" between the Trump administration and Russian officials.

"The need for an independent, bipartisan investigation into these matters has never been more clear," he said. "The Trump team has clear ties to the Russian government—and we ignore those ties at our own peril."

Several other former federal employees blasted the actions as improper.

Former Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security official Juliette Kayyem blasted Priebus' reported actions as "so wrong" and "so desperate." Another Justice Department alum, Matthew Miller, called the interaction "beyond inappropriate," adding that it "veers dangerously close to tampering with an investigation."

Brian Fallon, former press secretary to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, responded to the story by alluding to the FBI Director's letter to Congress about reopening the investigation into Clinton's emails.

"On the plus side, this story means Comey is going to leak word of any attempt by Trump WH to meddle in his inquiry," Fallon wrote on Twitter Thursday.

Eli Stokols contributed to this report.