Cotton: It’s the FBI’s job to probe Trump-Russia claims

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said the FBI’s reported investigation into unverified allegations about President-elect Donald Trump’s connections to Russia is routine.

“The FBI is our counter-intelligence agency — domestically in the United States,” he told the Washington Examiner Wednesday. “It is their long-standing custom to try to thwart those espionage efforts.”

“The FBI would not be doing its job if it was not looking into claims by a hostile foreign power that it had compromising material — that it had other kinds of efforts to coerce or intimidate decision makers,” added Cotton, who endorsed Trump during his presidential campaign.

{mosads}Cotton also defended the intelligence community against criticism from Trump that it has leaked information about the president-elect to the media, suggesting instead that the White House was to blame.

“I suspect these leaks are not coming from the Intelligence Community but rather are coming from the West Wing, if you look at the pattern of the leaks,” he said.

“It occurred in December and occurred last week when the report was delivered to the West Wing — and now this leak about what was briefed to Donald Trump,” added Cotton, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Cotton added BuzzFeed might have violated U.S. libel law by publishing uncorroborated accusations about Trump and Russia, contained in a 35-page dossier documenting one former British intelligence operative’s research into Trump’s ties to Russia. BuzzFeed is facing criticism for publishing the original document in full.

“The publication of these unsubstantiated reports is scurrilous,” said Cotton, who is an attorney.

“I think it approaches the standard for reckless disregard for the truth under American libel law as established by New York Times v. Sullivan,” Cotton added.

Cotton said BuzzFeed could be successfully sued.

BuzzFeed published the dossier late Tuesday, which alleges Russia’s government has compromising financial and personal information about Trump. It also claims people close to Trump kept in touch with Moscow during the 2016 presidential race and for years beforehand.

U.S. intelligence officials have not verified the document’s details, and the dossier appears to contain several errors. However, the FBI is reportedly looking into the claims, and a two-page summary of the dossier was added to intelligence agencies’ larger classified report on Russian interference in the election, CNN first reported Tuesday.

Trump has fiercely criticized the dossier’s leak to media outlets.

“I think it was disgraceful that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake [to get out],” he said during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City.

“That’s something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do,” Trump added during the event, his first press conference since becoming president-elect.

FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday declined to answer questions from lawmakers about whether his agency has probed alleged links between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign.

“In a public forum, we never confirm or deny any investigation,” he told the Senate Intelligence Committee.