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Reuters
WASHINGTON
Senior US lawmakers attended classified briefings on Thursday on the FBI's probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election after President Donald Trump made unsubstantiated claims about a"spy"being used against his campaign.
An afternoon briefing on Capitol Hill followed an earlier session at the Justice Department, which did not provide details of what was discussed. Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan was spotted entering the Justice Department for the session, as well as two Republican committee chairmen.
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and lawyer Emmet Flood, who recently joined Trump's legal team, were also seen entering, as was Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Initial plans had called for a classified briefing with no Democrats present.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Kelly and Flood made brief remarks to those attending the meetings but departed before the sessions officially started.
The second briefing was scheduled for Republican and Democratic leaders from the Senate and House, known as the Gang of Eight, to attend, a Justice Department spokeswoman said.
The briefings were convened to allow lawmakers to review classified information relating to Trump's unsubstantiated suggestion that the FBI under Democratic former President Barack Obama's administration"implanted"a spy for"political purposes"into his 2016 presidential campaign to help his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
The Republican president's claims about a"spy"followed media reports that the FBI sent an informant, an American academic who teaches in Britain, to talk to Trump campaign advisers after the agency had received evidence that the aides had suspicious contacts with Russia. The use of informants is commonplace in counterintelligence and criminal investigations.
The FBI at the time was investigating whether anyone in Trump's campaign worked with Russia to help tip the election in Trump's favor.
