(L–R) Former FBI agent Peter Strzok; former FBI Director James Comey; and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. (Credit: Getty Images/Illustration by Epoch Times)
Newly-declassified memos written by disgraced FBI official Andrew McCabe shine new light on how he kept the Trump-Russia collusion hoax investigation alive during a critical period in the first half of 2017 before he got it handed off to a special counsel.
The eight memos penned by McCabe, most of which had never been released until earlier this month, span his discussions and meetings (including with President Donald Trump) held from January 24, 2017 to May 21, 2017 — a critical time period ranging from just before the FBI sprung an interview on retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn to just after Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel. The memos were more fully declassified through efforts by Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel earlier this month.
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January 24, 2017 — Mike Flynn’s call with McCabe
McCabe created his first memo related to a discussion he had with Flynn just before he was interviewed by FBI agents on January 24, 2017. Versions of the memo were previously released with various redactions in 2019 and 2020, but the version released this month has the fewest redactions yet.
The FBI had been plotting how to potentially prosecute Flynn related to his December 2016 call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, including potentially under the Logan Act.
McCabe said that “I told LTG Flynn that I had a sensitive matter to discuss. I explained that in light of the significant media coverage and public discussion about his recent contacts with Russian representatives, that Director Comey and I felt that we needed to have two of our agents sit down with the General and hear from him the details of those conversations. LTG Flynn asked if I was referring to his contacts with the Russian Ambassador to the United States, and indicated that I was.”
McCabe said in his memo that Flynn explained that he had been trying to “build relationships” with the Russians, and that he had calls in which he “exchanged condolences.” McCabe said Flynn then stated that McCabe probably knew what was said in these calls because “you listen to everything they say.”
McCabe said of his talk with Flynn that “I reiterated that in light of everything that has been said about these contacts, the important thing now was for us to hear directly from him what he said and how he felt about the conversations.”
Comey later admitted in 2018 that he took advantage of the chaos in the early days of Trump’s administration when he sent FBI special agents Peter Strzok and Joseph Pientka to talk to Flynn.
“I sent them,” Comey said to MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace, prompting laughter in the audience. “Something I probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with in … a more organized administration. In the George W. Bush administration, for example, or the Obama administration.”
“In both of those administrations, there was process, and so, if the FBI wanted to send agents into the White House itself to interview a senior official, you would work through the White House counsel, and there’d be discussions and approvals and who would be there, and I thought, it’s early enough — let’s just send a couple guys over,” Comey added.
Strzok overjoyed that Flynn case not closed
The Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the Flynn case in May 2020 stated that Strzok learned in early January 2017 that the Flynn case had not been closed despite the lack of evidence for keeping it open, and relayed the “serendipitously good” news to McCabe’s special assistant Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was having an affair. Strzok remarked that “our utter incompetence actually helps us.” Strzok then instructed FBI agents to “keep it open for now” at the behest of “the 7th Floor” of the bureau.
The DOJ said that “the FBI kept open its counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn based solely on his calls with Kislyak — the only new information to arise since the FBI’s determination to close the case.” McCabe did not tell Flynn that he was being interviewed by the FBI as part of an investigation targeting the Trump campaign.
McCabe said in his memo that “LTG Flynn questioned how so much information had been made public and asked if we thought it had been leaked” and “I replied that we were quite concerned about what we perceived as significant leaks and that we were in the process of completing a referral to the Department of Justice requesting authority to initiate a leak investigation.” McCabe said that “I further indicated that these cases were hard to prove but that we thought the significance of this situation demanded a thorough review.”
The leaks begin
Flynn’s communications with Ambassador Kislyak were leaked to the media in early 2017. Republicans have alleged since 2017 that Obama-era officials improperly unmasked associates of then-candidate Donald Trump’s presidential campaign during the Russia collusion investigation. Democrats defended the intelligence-gathering process.
A Washington Post column in mid-January 2017 contained classified details that set off a media frenzy. Citing a “senior U.S. government official,” it said Flynn and Kislyak spoke on the phone in December 2016, the day former President Barack Obama announced actions against Russia, and suggested Flynn had violated the archaic Logan Act. A follow-up article by the Washington Post in early February 2017 revealed classified details from Flynn’s monitored calls with Kislyak, citing “nine current and former officials” in “senior positions at multiple agencies.”
John Bash, the U.S. attorney tasked in 2020 with investigating the “unmasking” scandal, concluded that Flynn’s name had not even been hidden to begin with when the FBI shared information across the Obama administration.
The leakers of the Flynn calls were never found.
McCabe said in his memo that he told Flynn that it would not be a good idea for Flynn to have a lawyer present when he was questioned by the FBI that afternoon.
“I explained to LTG Flynn that my desire was to have two of my agents interview him as quickly, quietly, and discretely as possible. He agreed and offered to meet with the agents today,” McCabe wrote. “I explained that I thought the quickest way to get this done was to have a conversation between him and the agents only. I further stated that if LTG Flynn wished to include anyone else in the meeting, like the White House Counsel for instance, that would need to involve the Department of Justice. He stated that this would not be necessary and agreed to meet with the agents without any additional participants.”
William Barnett, the FBI agent who handled Flynn’s case in 2016 and 2017, called the Trump-Russia investigation “Collusion Clue” and argued many investigators were out to “get Trump.”
Top FBI officials had discussed the possibility of prosecuting Flynn for lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russians as agents planned how to conduct their January 2017 interview of the Trump national security adviser, bureau notes show.
“I agreed yesterday that we shouldn’t show Flynn [REDACTED] if he didn’t admit” but “I thought about it last night and I believe we should rethink this,” Bill Priestap, the FBI’s head of counterintelligence, wrote in January 2017. “What is our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”
Obama White House kept tabs on Flynn
An email that Obama national security adviser Susan Rice sent herself detailing an early January 2017 Oval Office meeting was declassified in 2020, revealing just how focused the outgoing Obama administration was on Flynn.
“Director Comey affirmed that he is processing ‘by the book’ as it relates to law enforcement. From a national security perspective, Comey said he does have some concerns that incoming NSA Flynn is speaking frequently with Russian ambassador Kislyak. Comey said that could be an issue as it relates to sharing sensitive information,” Rice wrote.
Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told Mueller’s team that she first learned the FBI possessed and was investigating recordings of Flynn’s conversations following an early January 2017 national security meeting at the White House, and that it was Obama — not Comey — who told her about it.
Obama “started by saying that he had ‘learned of the information about Flynn’ and his conversation with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak,” Yates said, according to FBI notes. “Obama specified he did not want any additional information on the matter but was seeking information on whether the White House should be treating Flynn any differently.”
Yates told investigators that “at that point,” she “had no idea what the President was talking about.” She “recalled Comey mentioning the Logan Act” but could not remember if Comey specifically said there was an “investigation.”
Handwritten notes by Strzok released by the Justice Department in 2020 seem to quote then-Vice President Joe Biden directly raising the “Logan Act” related to Flynn, according to an apparent conversation Strzok had with Comey after an early January 2017 White House meeting. Strzok wrote that Comey said the Flynn-Kislyak calls “appear legit.” Obama emphasized that “the right people” should look into Flynn.
The task fell to Comey, McCabe, and Strzok.
The Flynn-Kislyak call and the FBI interview
The transcript of the call between Flynn and Kislyak — which occurred on December 29, 2016 — was declassified in 2020.
One transcript portion stated: “Flynn wants to convey the following [to Moscow]: Do not allow this [Obama] administration to box us in right now! Kislyak says they have conveyed it very clearly.”
“So, depending on what actions they take over this current issue of cyber stuff, where they are looking like they are going to dismiss some number of Russians out of the country. I understand all that and I understand that the information that they have and all that. But I ask Russia to do is to not, if anything, I know you have to have some sort of action, to only make it reciprocal; don’t go any further than you have to because I don’t want us to get into something that have to escalate to tit-for-tat. Do you follow me?” the transcript says Flynn said, with the transcript adding that “Kislyak says he understands what Flynn is saying, but Flynn might appreciate the sentiments that are raging now in Moscow.”
The transcript stated that Flynn said that “I really do not want us to get into the situation where we everybody goes back and forth and everybody had to be a tough guy here. We don’t need that right now. We need cool heads to prevail. And we need to be very steady about what we are going to do because we have absolutely a common threat in the Middle East.”
“Kislyak agrees. Now when FSB and GRU are sanctioned and Kislyak asks himself, does it mean that the U.S. is not willing to work on terrorist threats, Kislyak poses a question. Flynn says, yes. Kislyak says he heard Flynn and he will try people in Moscow to understand. Flynn repeats asking to reciprocate moderately,” the transcript stated.
The transcript added that Flynn also said, “Let’s keep this at even-kill level; then when we come in, we will have a better conversation where we are going to go regarding our relationship.”
The FBI’s notes of the interview of Flynn by Strzok and Pientka on January 24, 2017 were also released in a further declassified form this month. The interview occurred just a few hours after McCabe’s call with Flynn.
The FBI notes state: “FLYNN expanded that he had no particular affinity for Russia, but that KISLYAK was his counterpart, and maintaining trusted relationships within foreign governments is important.”
The notes state that “the interviewing agents asked FLYNN if he recalled any conversation with KISLYAK surrounding the expulsion of Russian diplomats or the closing of Russian properties in response to Russian hacking activities surrounding the election. FLYNN stated that he did not.”
The FBI notes also state that “the interviewing agents asked FLYNN if he recalled any conversation with KISLYAK in which the expulsions were discussed, where FLYNN might have encouraged KISLYAK not to escalate the situation, to keep the Russian response reciprocal,” or not to engage in a “tit-for-tat.” The FBI notes say that Flynn responded, “Not really. I don’t remember. It wasn’t ‘Don’t do anything.’”
Strzok was a key player throughout the FBI’s deeply flawed Crossfire Hurricane investigation — including writing the opening communication that launched the inquiry.
Pientka had conducted the FBI’s first counterintelligence briefing of then-candidate Trump in August 2016 at its New York field office — and the briefing had been used as a “pretext” to gather evidence on him and Flynn, according to 2019 testimony from DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz.
“They sent a supervisory agent to the briefing from the Crossfire Hurricane team, and that agent prepared a report to the file of the briefing about what Mr. Trump and Mr. Flynn said,” Horowitz testified. “So the agent was actually doing the briefing but also using it for the purpose of investigation.”
It was Strzok who signed off on Pientka’s summary of that pretextual briefing.
The interview by Strzok and Pientka with Flynn in January 2017 would soon be leveraged by McCabe and the FBI to facilitate the firing of Flynn — and to underpin a prosecution.
Trump DOJ later points out flaws with FBI’s Flynn interview
The Trump Justice Department later pointed out significant problems with how McCabe and the rest of the FBI leadership had handled the Flynn affair.
“FBI Director Comey took the position that the FBI would not notify the incoming Trump administration of the Flynn-Kislyak communications. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and other senior DOJ officials took the contrary view and believed that the incoming administration should be notified,” the DOJ said in 2020. “Deputy Attorney General Yates and another senior DOJ official became ‘frustrated’ when Director Comey’s justifications for withholding the information from the Trump administration repeatedly ‘morphed,’ vacillating from the potential compromise of a ‘counterintelligence’ investigation to the protection of a purported ‘criminal’ investigation.”
The DOJ said in 2020 that the morning of January 24, 2017 — right around when McCabe held his call with Flynn — Yates contacted Comey “to demand that the FBI notify the White House of the communications” but that “Comey did not initially return her call” — and when Comey called Yates back later that day, Comey “advised her that the FBI agents were already on their way to the White House to interview Mr. Flynn.” Yates said she was “flabbergasted” and “dumbfounded” while other senior DOJ officials “hit the roof” upon hearing of this development, given that “an interview of Flynn should have been coordinated with DOJ.”
But the machinations by McCabe and Comey ensured the FBI interview of Flynn happened the way they wanted.
Strzok and Pientka “didn’t show him the transcripts” of his calls when interviewing Flynn, the DOJ said, “nor did the agents give, at any point, warnings that making false statements would be a crime.”
And the DOJ said that “after the interview, the FBI agents expressed uncertainty as to whether Mr. Flynn had lied.” The DOJ wrote that Strzok and Pientka “had the impression at the time that Flynn was not lying or did not think he was lying.” And even Comey had his doubts about whether Flynn had even lied, saying, “I don’t know. I think there is an argument to be made he lied. It is a close one.”
“With its counterintelligence investigation no longer justifiably predicated, the communications between Mr. Flynn and Mr. Kislyak — the FBI’s sole basis for resurrecting the investigation on January 4, 2017 — did not warrant either continuing that existing counterintelligence investigation or opening a new criminal investigation,” the Trump DOJ determined in 2020. “The calls were entirely appropriate on their face. Mr. Flynn has never disputed that the calls were made. Indeed, Mr. Flynn, as the former Director of Defense Intelligence Agency, would have readily expected that the FBI had known of the calls — and told FBI Deputy Director McCabe as much.”
The Trump DOJ added: “The Government does not believe it could prove that Mr. Flynn knowingly and willfully made a false statement beyond a reasonable doubt. … The Government is not persuaded that the January 24, 2017 interview was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and therefore does not believe Mr. Flynn’s statements were material even if untrue.”
Yet the FBI interview with Flynn would help end his brief tenure as national security adviser, and would result in his prosecution.
January 31, 2017 — McCabe talks to Bannon in the West Wing
McCabe wrote another memo about a meeting in the West Wing, accompanied by FBI official Bill Priestap, with then-White House official Steve Bannon on January 31, 2017.
The McCabe memo stated that “the purpose of the meeting was to discuss a piece of intelligence regarding Eugene Chin Yu, who claimed to be under consideration by Mr. Bannon for a position as Special Envoy to North Korea or the United States Ambassador to South Korea.” But the meeting soon led to a discussion about Trump and Comey.
“Mr. Bannon requested that he be given an opportunity to speak to me privately, and Mr. Priestap left the room. Mr. Bannon then mentioned that President Trump told him that he had a positive experience dining with Director Comey last Friday night and he inquired about whether the Director mentioned it to me,” McCabe wrote. “I replied that Director Comey was also very positive about their engagement. Mr. Bannon stated that he thought it was important to put the two men together to find out if Director Comey wished to stay in his position and whether President Trump wanted to retain him.”
McCabe later told Mueller’s team in September 2017 that he had essentially lied to Bannon, with the FBI’s notes of its interview with McCabe stating that “McCabe knew Comey did not have a good time, but answered that way in order to ‘move the issue off the table.’”
“Mr. Bannon explained that President Trump wished to be very supportive of law enforcement and to the FBI specifically Mr. Bannon was eager to identify opportunities for President Trump to visit the FBI, or to participate in FBI events, in an effort to publicly support the organization,” McCabe’s memo of the conversation stated. “Mr. Bannon pointed to the President’s recent speech at CIA headquarters as an example. He said President Trump would probably be quite interested in seeing the FBI Training Academy at Quantico, Virginia, and possibly could participate in a New Agent’s graduation. I told Mr. Bannon that I appreciated his and the President’s interest and indicated that I would discuss the matter with Director Comey.”
McCabe would later undercut efforts by Trump to pay a visit to the FBI, and McCabe would also soon exacerbate the tensions between Flynn and then-Vice President Mike Pence.
Flynn, Pence, and the Kislyak call
Obama had announced on December 29, 2016 that “I have ordered a number of actions in response to the Russian government’s aggressive harassment of U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election.”
“I have issued an executive order that provides additional authority for responding to certain cyber activity that seeks to interfere with or undermine our election processes and institutions, or those of our allies or partners,” Obama said. “I have sanctioned nine entities and individuals: the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence services; four individual officers of the GRU; and three companies that provided material support to the GRU’s cyber operations.”
Obama also said that “the State Department is also shutting down two Russian compounds, in Maryland and New York, used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes, and is declaring ‘persona non grata’ 35 Russian intelligence operatives.”
Then-Vice President Mike Pence had told CBS News on January 15, 2017 that “I talked to General Flynn about that conversation [with Kislyak]… It was strictly coincidental that they had a conversation. They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia.”
“It wasn’t about sanctions. It was about the 35 guys who were thrown out,” Flynn later told the Daily Caller in February 2017 about his call with Kislyak. “So that’s what it turned out to be. It was basically, ‘Look, I know this happened. We’ll review everything.’ I never said anything such as, ‘We’re going to review sanctions,’ or anything like that.”
But Flynn signed a guilty plea in November 2017 after being targeted by the Mueller investigation. The Mueller team contended that “FLYNN’s false statements and omissions impeded and otherwise had a material impact on the FBI’s ongoing investigation into the existence of any links or coordination between individuals associated with the Campaign and Russia’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.”
Flynn’s legal team moved to withdraw Flynn’s guilty plea in January 2020, declaring their client was “innocent” and pointing to “the government’s bad faith, vindictiveness, and breach of the plea agreement.”
Flynn’s lawyers told the court in the summer of 2020 that they believed the declassified information was exculpatory evidence “demonstrating (i) his innocence; (ii) the absence of any crime; (iii) government misconduct in the investigation of General Flynn; and (iv) prosecutorial misconduct in the suppression of evidence favorable to the defense.”
February 10, 2017 — McCabe meets with Pence about Flynn controversy
McCabe penned an additional memo about a counterintelligence briefing that he and Priestap gave at the Office of the Vice President on February 10, 2017 — just three days before Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser at the behest of Pence. The memo shows that it was McCabe who showed Pence and other White House officials the Flynn-Kislyak transcript, and that McCabe discussed the Logan Act with Pence and others.
McCabe wrote that “I went to the White House to provide a basic CI [counterintelligence] defensive brief to the staff members of the Office of the Vice President” and that, after leaving the briefing and preparing to head back to FBI quarters, a yet-redacted FBI special agent “informed me that the White House Counsel’s office had been trying to reach me. Before leaving the White House grounds, I contacted the Sit Room. They informed me that White House Counsel Donald McGahn requested that I meet him in the West Wing to discuss an urgent matter in person.”
McCabe first went to McGahn’s office and then went to Pence’s office in the West Wing, where he met with Pence, McGahn, White House counsel’s office lawyer James Burnham, Pence chief of staff Josh Pitcock, and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.
“After entering the office, Mr. Priebus informed me that he wanted to review ‘the transcripts.’ I understood he was referring to the transcripts of the telephone conversations between National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak that were recently revealed in an article in the Washington Post,” McCabe wrote. “He mentioned that he knew the FBI previously allowed John Eisenberg, Legal Advisor to the National Security Staff, to review the transcripts. I indicated to Mr. Priebus and the others that I could have Bill Priestap retrieve the transcripts from FBI HQ so that they could review them. The Vice President asked me to dispatch Bill Priestap so that they could review the materials as soon as possible.”
McCabe said that he left the room to call Priestap and to direct him to retrieve the transcripts, and that he also spoke with FBI general counsel James Baker, who “agreed that the review was permissible.”
McCabe said he returned to the office and “I received several questions from Mr. Priebus about how the transcripts could have leaked to the media, and whether or not the FBI was investigating the leak. I replied that we did not know how information about the transcripts had been leaked but that we had submitted a referral to the Department of Justice requesting authorization to begin a media leak investigation. I explained that the investigations would include recent and previous revelations in the Washington Post and other news outlets.”
Leakers not caught
McCabe also wrote in his memo that “Pence asked if I had read the transcripts and I indicated that I had. He then asked if the articles were correct. I first stated that I could not confirm whether the reporter had access to the transcripts or if they had merely spoken to someone who had such access. I then stated that I thought the article in the Post accurately reflected the substance of the transcripts. The Vice President asked, ‘Did they talk about the sanctions?’ I understood him to be asking whether Mr. Flynn and Mr. Kislyak discussed the U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia at the end of December 2016. I indicated that they did discuss the sanctions in those conversations.”
The memo by McCabe stated that “the Vice President indicated that he needed to discuss the matter with his staff, so I left the room to wait for Mr. Priestap to return with the transcripts.”
Once the transcripts were retrieved by Priestap, McCabe wrote that “I provided the Vice President with transcripts of telephone calls captured on 12/23/2016, 12/29/2016 and 12/31/2016. All three calls were between Mr. Flynn and Mr. Kislyak.” McCabe said that “I brought the Vice President’s attention to the call on 12/29/2016” — the call McCabe knew the FBI had grilled Flynn on the month prior.
“While reading the first two pages he commented that several items were consistent with what Mr. Flynn previously informed him had been discussed on the call. He requested that Mr. Pitcock get him a transcript of his comments to CBS news and one was produced. He also asked when the Obama administration announced the sanctions against Russia and someone confirmed that the sanctions were made public on 12/29/2016,” McCabe said of Pence. “Upon reading the portion of the transcript that detailed Mr. Flynn’s comments about the sanctions, the Vice President appeared frustrated and noted that Mr. Flynn initiated the discussion on that topic. The Vice President and the others compared Mr. Flynn’s statements in the transcripts with the Vice President’s comments to CBS News, and discussed what Mr. Flynn had told the Vice President about his conversations.”
McCabe wrote that Priebus, McGahn, Burnham, and Pitcock also reviewed some of the transcripts.
“Mr. Priebus asked me questions about whether or not the discussions related in the transcripts could constitute a violation of the Logan Act. I replied that he would need to ask the Department of Justice whether or not the calls constituted a violation of the act,” McCabe wrote. “I further stated that I was not aware of any prior prosecutions of Logan Act violations. Mr. Priebus asked if previous administrations had similar contacts with foreign representatives prior to taking office officially. I indicated that although I could not speak authoritatively about the actions of previous administrations, I thought it was possible that considerations like that could have been why the act had not been charged in the past.”
McCabe knew quite well that the FBI had indeed considered investigating and potentially prosecuting Flynn under the Logan Act.
“The FBI had in their possession transcripts of the relevant calls,” the Trump DOJ wrote in May 2020 when seeking to throw out the Flynn prosecution. “Believing that the counterintelligence investigation of Mr. Flynn was to be closed, FBI leadership determined to continue its investigation of Mr. Flynn on the basis of these calls, and considered opening a new criminal investigation based solely on a potential violation of the Logan Act.”
McCabe’s memo concluded by saying that “the Vice President finished reading the transcripts and thanked us for providing them.”
Flynn was pushed to resign just a few days after McCabe’s meeting in the West Wing with Pence.
February 15, 2017 — McCabe refuses to shoot down ‘false’ NYT story on Trump & Russia
McCabe’s memos also detailed a meeting with Priebus at the White House on February 15, 2017 — now just a few days after Flynn’s ouster — where McCabe refused to publicly shoot down a New York Times article on alleged Trump-Russia collusion, even though McCabe acknowledged it was “false.” McCabe also advised Priebus that Trump should not shoot the story down either. McCabe was again accompanied to this meeting by Priestap, and the meeting again began as a defensive briefing which devolved into a discussion about Russia.
“I went to the White House for a meeting with Chief of Staff to the President Reince Priebus. FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Bill Priestap accompanied me. We were met by William Evanina, who is an FBI agent currently on detail to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as the Director of the National Counterintelligence Security Center. The purpose of the meeting was to provide a counterintelligence defensive briefing to Mr. Priebus,” McCabe wrote. “We convened in Mr. Priebus’ office on the second floor of the West Wing. Joining us were White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Joe Hagin, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Intelligence Programs Ezra Cohen, and one of Mr. Priebus’ briefers from the President’s Daily Briefing Staff. Over the course of about 25 minutes, Mr. Priestap provided the briefing and Mr. Evanina contributed details about cyber espionage and other counterintelligence topics.”
McCabe wrote that “the briefing concluded when Mr. Priebus indicated he had another meeting to attend. I asked Mr. Priebus if he had a moment to discuss a sensitive matter privately. He said he did and the other individuals left the room. I informed Mr. Priebus that the article that appeared in the New York Times this morning which purported to detail FBI efforts to investigate contacts between Russian intelligence officers and several individuals associated with the Trump campaign was largely inaccurate. … I further stated that I was aware of only two White House employees who were in contact with the Russian government: Michael Flynn and Hope Hicks. I reminded him that we discussed the substance of Mr. Flynn’s contacts on Friday, 02/10/2017. I further stated that the FBI’s assessment was that Hope Hicks’ contacts were innocuous, within the scope of her duties, and that we had already provided her with a defensive briefing.”
The article contended that “American law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee… The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election.”
The McCabe memo said that “Priebus seemed surprised by my comments and indicated that he also thought the article was false. He indicated that the administration was frustrated by having to spend so much time and effort refuting press stories that the White House perceived to be false. Mr. Priebus asked if the FBI would publicly state that the article was false. I told him that we did not do that sort of thing because when we corrected inaccurate news accounts we might inadvertently telegraph to our adversaries our capabilities and our operational activity. He asked if he could share what I told him with others in the White House, including the President. I told him he could share it with whoever he felt he needed to, as long as they did not share it publicly.”
Priebus asked, “What if I told the President and he inadvertently tweeted it?” McCabe wrote that “I told him that would not be a good thing. He continued to press me to consider how the FBI could issue some sort of statement to address this issue. I told him that I would discuss the matter with Director Comey and then get back to him.”