separate meeting on the day after these were published. they told priebus that the new york times vastly overstated what the fbi knows about the russian contacts. another official tells us that mccabe didn t discuss aspects of the case. the white house official said priebus later reached out to mccabe and james comey asking for the fbi to talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories. the fbi refused and they refused to comment on the story today. white house chief of staff reince priebus read a statement, but he denied the story initially. this is what he said on fox news sunday. the new york times put out an article that said the trump campaign had constant contacts with russian spies.
mccabe told priebus that the new york times story vastly overstated what the fbi knows about the contacts. a u.s. official says mccabe didn t discuss specific aspects of the case but wouldn t say exactly what mccabe told priebus. the white house officials said priebus reached out to mccabe and james comey asking the fbi to talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories. again, the fbi refused that request. to underline that, pamela, this is certainly not a typical back and forth between any white house and the fbi. right. for a reason. there are decade-old restrictions on such contacts between the white house and the fbi limiting those discussions only to when it is important for the president s duties and where appropriate from a law enforcement perspective. so if the deputy director of the fbi, andrew mccabe did say this to the white house, he may have overstepped since it s an ongoing investigation, not to mention an investigation involving the president s associates a