FBI Director James Comey said he expects his agency will not "say another peep" about the investigation into possible coordination between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia until it is completed.
But during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, the director did warn that Russia is still actively involved in U.S. politics and said he anticipates the Kremlin will try to interfere with future elections.
“I expect to see them back in 2018, especially in 2020,” he said.
After all, Comey said, one of the key lessons Moscow learned from its interference in the 2016 U.S. election was that “this works.”
Asked by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) if it is “fair to say the Russian government is still involved in American politics,” Comey replied, “yes.” Comey also noted that the U.S. has reached out to help allies deal with potential Russian interference in their upcoming elections.
Russia represents “the greatest threat of any nation on earth,” to the democratic process “given their intention and capability,” Comey said.
Senators tried to draw out more information about the Trump-Russia probe from the FBI director during a wide-ranging hearing on oversight of the Bureau, but Comey repeatedly said he would not discuss details concerning the ongoing investigation.
The FBI head declined to comment on whether Trump — or any other person — had been ruled out in the investigation.
“I haven’t said anything publicly about who we’ve opened investigations on. I briefed the Chair and Ranking on who those people are. And so I can’t go beyond that in this setting,” Comey said.
Several Democratic senators used their time during the hearing to press Comey to appoint a special prosecutor in the case. Comey noted that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would be the one to make that decision, but he added later that “it’s possible” he may at some point recommend a special prosecutor.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was a senior advisor on the Trump campaign, recused himself from investigations related to the 2016 presidential election after The Washington Post reported he had met twice with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the campaign and did not disclose those interactions at his confirmation hearing.
When asked if he talked to former acting Attorney General Sally Yates about her concerns regarding Trump’s then-National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, Comey replied, “I did. I don’t know whether I can talk about it in this forum. But the answer is yes.”
Flynn resigned less than one month into the new administration after revelations emerged that he had lied about discussing sanctions with the Russian ambassador and that the Department of Justice had shared concerns with the White House he could be vulnerable to blackmail.
Yates is scheduled to testify Monday along with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper at the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism. Yates is expected to discuss reports that she forcefully warned the Trump administration about her concerns over Flynn — that he had lied about his contacts with the Russian ambassador and this could make him vulnerable to being compromised by Russia — weeks before his ousting.
In March, Comey confirmed for the first time that the FBI is conducting an investigation into whether there was any coordination between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election. The counterintelligence probe began in late July 2016.
Comey also dismissed Trump’s claim this week that China, or “a lot of different groups” could have been behind the Democratic National Committee hack during the election. The U.S. Intelligence Community assessment is that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a cyber and influence campaign to boost Trump’s chances of winning the election.
“The Intelligence Community with high confidence concluded it was Russia,” Comey said. “In many circumstances, it's hard to do attribution of a hack, but sometimes the intelligence is there. We have high confidence that the North Koreans hacked Sony, we have high confidence that the Russians did the hacking of the DNC and the other organizations.”
Comey is scheduled to testify about the Russia investigation on Thursday in a closed door hearing of the House Intelligence Committee.
Mackenzie Weinger is a national security reporter at The Cipher Brief. Follow her on Twitter @mweinger.
