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2507d ago / 4:04 PM UTC

Trump Gave Russians Secrets News Orgs Are Being Asked to Withhold

Some of the intelligence President Trump provided to Russian officials is so secret that American news organizations are still being asked not to report it, two U.S. officials told NBC News.

The requests by U.S. intelligence officials cast doubt on the assertion by the president's aides that the sharing was appropriate.

2507d ago / 10:35 PM UTC

Report: House Leader McCarthy Told Colleagues Putin 'Pays' Trump

Scoops for everyone!

The Washington Post is out with a report that a month before Trump secured the Republican nomination, a House leader joked with colleagues that Putin "pays" Trump.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” House Majority Leader and California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy reportedly said in mid-June 2016, referring to the leading presidential candidate and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Californian Republican known for defending Russia.

Some lawmakers present laughed, to which McCarthy said: “swear to God.” House Speaker Paul Ryan told lawmakers to keep the exchange between them.

“No leaks," he said. "This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

A Ryan spokesman initially told the Post the exchange "never happened." When told there was a recording, the spokesman Brendan Buck said it was "clearly an attempt at humor."

In a statement provided to NBC News, Buck said, "No one believed the majority leader was seriously asserting that Donald Trump or any of our members were being paid by the Russians. What’s more, the speaker and leadership team have repeatedly spoken out against Russia’s interference in our election, and the House continues to investigate that activity.”

"It's a bad attempt at a joke," McCarthy told NBC News Wednesday night.

The full Post story, with a Kiev dateline, is here.

2507d ago / 5:29 PM UTC

Senate to Comey: We Need to Talk

Paging Jim Comey, paging Jim Comey — the Senate wants to talk.

Following an explosive report that the president pressured former FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating a former aide, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence sent letters calling for former FBI director James Comey to testify.

They also penned a letter to Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe requesting that they preserve any materials prepared by the former Director regarding communications he had with senior White House and Department of Justice officials related to investigations into Russia’s efforts.

The Senate Judiciary Committee requested similar materials Wednesday from both the FBI and the White House "including any audio recordings," according to the a press release.

These requests join similar requests from the House Oversight Committee, who demanded that the FBI turn over all documents that it has about communications between the president and Comey on Tuesday night. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz of Utah told NBC News that he'd subpoena it if necessary. 

2507d ago / 2:18 PM UTC

Amid Worse Headlines, Trump Ignores Questions

This storm is looking like a hurricane.

After 36 hours of scrambling to respond to reports that the president had disclosed highly classified information to the Russians, the White House is now trying to weather even worse headlines: that Trump asked former FBI Director James Comey to drop his investigation into former aide Michael Flynn. The White House has disputed Comey's memo recording the exchange as inaccurate. 

So far, the president isn't saying much: Trump ignored shouted questions as he walked from the residence to Marine One.

2507d ago / 2:06 PM UTC

Races to Watch to Gauge Russia Scandal's Ripple Effect

Looking to see how the Comey/Russia issue is playing outside of Washington? We could get some answers in the upcoming special congressional elections in Montana (May 25) and Georgia (June 20).

While Comey and Russia have been on the back burner in these two races, the Democratic and GOP candidates have taken fundamentally different views on this subject. And a Republican loss in either Montana (where private polling has the GOP candidate ahead 5-8 pts) or Georgia (where it’s a true 50%-50% race) could produce political tremors in Washington.

Montana (race to replace Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke) -- May 25

  • GOP candidate Greg Gianforte:  "The American people and the people in the FBI had lost confidence in [Comey’s] leadership. I support the president in his decision to ask him to leave," Mr. Gianforte said in an interview," he told the Wall Street Journal.
  • Dem candidate Rob Quist: “Greg Gianforte has refused to support an independent investigation and instead has doubled down on his Russian investments. It’s time for [Trump] to come clean and for the American people to know what really happened in 2016," he said in a statement.

Georgia (race to replace HHS Sec. Tom Price) -- June 20

  • Dem candidate Jon Ossoff: “Comey’s firing raises severe questions. There should be bipartisan support for a special prosecutor to investigate Russian interference," he wrote on Twitter.
  • GOP candidate Karen Handel: “It’s been clear for some time that FBI Director Comey has lost the confidence of Republicans, Democrats and broader institutions, and his removal as FBI Director was probably overdue,” she said. “I hope that the president will quickly nominate a strong, independent leader as the next director of the FBI and that the Senate will consider the nomination as quickly as possible," she said in a statement.

-- Mark Murray, Senior Political Editor