The White House asked the FBI to publicly dispute reports about President Donald Trump’s team communicating with Russian officials during last year’s presidential campaign, CNN and The Associated Press reported Thursday. Such communication would mark a breach in protocol intended to prevent the White House from meddling in the agency’s investigations. The White House denied those stories. According to the reports, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus reached out to FBI Director James Comey and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and asked them to tell reporters that the stories weren’t true. The AP reported that a White House official would not comment when asked if the administration was concerned about the appropriateness of Priebus’ communications with McCabe.

Source: Huffington Post February 24, 2017 05:25 UTC