Spicer digs in after FBI confirms Russia probe

The mere presence of an investigation into ties between the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and the Russian government does not indicate that such connections actually exist, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday, reacting to the first public disclosure from the FBI that it is looking into the Kremlin’s interference in last year’s election.

While the presence of an FBI investigation into Russian election meddling and ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials had been the source of much reporting, bureau director James Comey confirmed Monday that the investigation does, in fact exist. Testifying before the House Intelligence Committee, Comey said the investigation is focused not just on Russian interference in the election but also on ties between Moscow and Trump campaign officials.


“Investigating it and having proof of it are two different things,” Spicer said at his Monday press briefing, citing multiple intelligence community officials and lawmakers who have said that they have seen no evidence to indicate a tie between the president’s campaign and the Russian government.

“I mean, there’s a point at which you continue to search for something that everybody who’s been briefed hasn’t seen or found,” he continued. “I think it’s fine to look into it but at the end of the day, they're going to come to the same conclusion that everybody else has had. So you can continue to look for something, but continuing to look for something that doesn't exist, doesn't matter.”

Without naming names, Spicer also characterized many of the former Trump campaign officials who have been tied in media reports to Russia as “hangers-on” who had in reality had little to do with the president’s team. On a reporter’s follow-up question, Spicer confirmed that Carter Page, a former adviser to the Trump campaign, would be one such individual.

“Those people, the greatest amount of interaction that they had with the campaign was the campaign apparently sending them a series of cease and desist letters,” Spicer said. “When you read a lot of this activity about ‘associates,’ there is a fine line between people who want to be part of something that they never had an official role in and people who actually played a role in either the campaign or the transition.”