Not Moscow

There is no doubt that Russia tried to intervene in the electoral process in the United States and that this operation was authorized by Russian officials. This was stated by the former director of the FBI James Komi at open hearing in the US Senate Intelligence Committee, Voice of America reports .

According to Komi, for the first time he learned about Russia's attempts to organize cyber attacks in the late summer of 2015. According to him, then it was about "at least hundreds of goals in the United States." The ex-director of the FBI noted that perhaps there were more than a thousand such attacks. At the beginning of 2016, special services were informed by American companies and public organizations about the threat of cyber attacks and that they could be a goal for Russian hackers in the public service, Komi emphasized.

Komi also said that on the eve he had already submitted to the committee members the text of his statement about his conversations with President Donald Trump about the progress of the investigation, and would not repeat it. However, most of the senators concerned this.

Komi said that the special services had “no technical reasons” to consider Trump one of the suspects in the case of Russian intervention. However, according to him, some of the heads of the FBI believed that during the further investigation, agents could conclude that the "presidential candidate" was also involved in unlawful actions.

At the same time, Komi emphasized that the practice of contacts of the members of the election headquarters of the candidate with foreign representatives is “normal” and only in some cases causes suspicions of the FBI. At the same time, he refused to talk about the details of the ongoing investigation, saying that "he does not consider it possible to do this during the open hearings."

In response to the question of the senators, the ex-director once again publicly confirmed that Trump is not a defendant in the investigation.

At the same time, Komi admitted that he organized a leak in the media in the media in the media to achieve the investigation of Russia's actions and after his resignation.

In his written testimony, Senate Komi said that Trump asked him to stop the investigation against the ex-adviser on the national security of Michael Flynn. According to Komi, the president persuaded him to turn the investigation against Flynn on February 14, the day after the resignation of the adviser. Trump said that Flynn “did nothing wrong”, and he had to be resigned only because he misled the vice president Mike Pence. Trump called Flynn a "good guy" and several times asked Komi to "let him go." Komi, however, did not agree to do this.

At another meeting with Trump, which occurred on January 27 at dinner in the White House, the president, according to Komi, told him that he was “expecting loyalty” from the head of the special services. Komi notes that this has worried him, since the FBI should be independent of the White House.

On May 10, Trump sent Komi a letter with a resignation message. In it, the president said that the director of the FBI cannot cope with his duties . “Although I am very grateful for the fact that three times you informed me under different circumstances that I am not under investigation, I still agree with the assessment of the Ministry of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau,” the document said.

Many American politicians connected the resignation of Komi with the investigation of the ties of the Trump team with Russia. On May 12, The New York Times, citing a number of sources in Congress, reported that in the last days before dismissal, the FBI director demanded significant additional funds for this investigation.

On May 20, Komi agreed to appear at the open hearings of the US Senate Committee on Intelligence . According to the committee chairman Richard Burr and Senator Mark Warner, they want to learn from Komi about his role in the investigation of Russia's intervention in the 2016 presidential election.