White House chief of staff Reince Priebus asked a top FBI official to dispute media reports that President Trump's campaign advisers were in frequent touch with Russian intelligence agents during the election, a White House official told the Associated Press late Thursday. "To be clear, it was the FBI that contacted the White House to rebut the New York Times' story," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday night. When communication has to occur, the memo said, it should involve only the highest-level officials from the White House and the Justice Department. The White House official would not comment when asked if the administration was concerned about the appropriateness of Priebus' communications with McCabe, the Associated Press reported. The FBI would not say whether it had contacted the White House about the veracity of the Times report.

Source: Fox News February 24, 2017 07:18 UTC