At the White House press briefing, Peter Alexander of NBC asked the press secretary, “Can you say with certainty right now that there’s nobody working for this White House that is presently working in the interest of a foreign government?” There would seem to be only one answer to this question. But Spicer gave a remarkable reply, saying, “I can tell you that every form has been filled out.”

"Can you say with certainty that there's nobody working for this White House that is presently working in the interest of a foreign gov't?" pic.twitter.com/RquD3jjKJs — CBS News (@CBSNews) March 22, 2017

Spicer added that the White House “absolutely” trusts its people to fill out these “forms” correctly. He elaborated at length: “People are filling out forms. So to sit here and ask me whether I can vouch for, whatever it is, a few hundred people who have filled out everything, that would be ridiculous for me to stand here and suggest I possibly could. But what I can tell you is that under the penalty of law, every single person who has filled out a form, that is being vetted by whatever level of classification that they need to get by the appropriate law enforcement agencies or HR entities.”



This is a very odd response, to put it mildly, shifting from the question of foreign influence to one of proper documentation. On the day in which new evidence emerged of connections between Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Russian oligarchs, Spicer did little to reassure those concerned about possible illicit ties between Trump’s team and foreign governments.