FAKE NEWS/FBI/INTELLIGENCE/MEDIA/RUSSIA: “The FBI rejected a recent White House request to publicly knock down media reports about communications between Donald Trump’s associates and Russians known to US intelligence during the 2016 presidential campaign, multiple US officials briefed on the matter tell CNN.
White House officials had sought the help of the bureau and other agencies investigating the Russia matter to say that the reports were wrong and that there had been no contacts, the officials said. The reports of the contacts were first published by The New York Times and CNN on February 14.
The direct communications between the White House and the FBI were unusual because of decade-old restrictions on such contacts. Such a request from the White House is a violation of procedures that limit communications with the FBI on pending investigations.”
–Jim Sciutto, Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz, Manu Raju and Pamela Brown, “FBI refused White House request to knock down recent Trump-Russia stories,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Feb. 23, 2017