White House dismisses CNN report on FBI as ‘indefensible’

President Donald Trump’s top spokesman dismissed a news report alleging the FBI rejected a request by the White House to publicly knock down reports about communications between Trump associates and the Russians. “What you guys have done is indefensible and inaccurate,” he told reporters.

Senior administration officials accused CNN, which broke the story, of mischaracterizing the White House’s request to the FBI — though they did not dispute that a communication took place between the FBI and White House officials. CNN reported that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus reached out to FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe asking them to talk to reporters on background to dispute the stories about communications between Trump associates and Russia, which ran in The New York Times and CNN. Comey reportedly rejected the request because the alleged communications are the subject of an investigation. The discussions between the FBI and the White House could run aground of longstanding rules restrictions of contact regarding pending investigations.