Trump was admonished by intelligence chiefs on three main points in a specially-convened hearing before the House Intelligence Committee.

First, Comey confirmed the FBI was investigating Russia's attempted interference in the 2016 presidential election, including any collaboration between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin.

While as yet there is not necessarily any public smoking gun implicating Trump himself, it calls into serious question his persistent claim that the alleged Russia connection is "fake news" and a "ruse".

Second, Comey rejected Trump's recent wild barrage of assertions on Twitter that predecessor Barack Obama wire-tapped Trump Tower during the election campaign.

FBI Director James Comey, left, and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers testify on Capitol Hill. AP

"I have no information that supports those tweets," Comey said. "We have looked carefully inside the FBI," and FBI agents found nothing to support the claims, he added.

Trump seems to have based his allegation on a flimsy far-right media report.

Third, National Security Agency director Mike Rogers, who is responsible for foreign intelligence and working with offshore partners, said he had "seen nothing on the NSA side" to support the Trump administration's accusation that British government agents had spied on Trump for Obama.


Britain is arguably America's closest security ally and was infuriated by the assertion. The claim was made last week by a Fox News analyst and the network later admitted it wasn't true.

Yet Trump is a man who cannot admit errors of the most serious or basic kind.

Paradoxically, Hillary Clinton lost the election because voters felt she was untrustworthy and due to Trump's blunt, supposed truth telling.

Ironically, Comey's ill-considered announcement 11 days before the election that the FBI had reopened an investigation connected to Clinton also helped Trump win the White House and gain a misinformation megaphone.

But with Comey's latest intervention and Trump's track record for spreading mistruths, how can American voters or foreign allies trust what comes out of the loose-talking former real estate salesman's mouth?

To put it politely, Trump is a persistent fibber inflicting grave damage on America's credibility.