The
US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has found no clear links
between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Russia,
officials say, proving false allegations by the candidate’s Democratic
rival Hillary Clinton.
The FBI spent most of the summer to
verify claims by the Clinton campaign that Trump was linked to President
Vladimir Putin, and Moscow was trying to influence the November 8 vote
in his favor.
However, the bureau failed to find any
indications of the alleged ties after scrutinizing advisors close to
Trump, investigating the real estate mogul’s financial ties and even his
emails, the New York Times reported Tuesday, citing law enforcement officials.
Clinton’s campaign voiced concerns about
Moscow’s intervention after a series of emails belonging to various
ranks of the Democratic Party were released by the anti-secrecy website
Wikileaks.
American intelligence officials blamed
the hacks on Russia and even threatened to come up with countermeasures
of the same nature. President Barack Obama and high-ranking officials in
his administration also blamed Russia for the breaches.
Under immense pressure from Clinton’s
supporters, who were mad at Trump for calling Putin a great leader, the
FBI started its investigation into the claims.
The Clinton campaign has called on the
FBI to publicly discuss their findings about the case, as they did with
their new investigation into Clinton’s new emails.
FBI chief James Comey told Congress on
Friday that he was reopening investigations into Clinton’s emails after
finding a trove of new emails on a laptop belonging to former
representative Anthony Weiner, who was once married to Clinton’s top
aide Huma Abedin.
At some point during its investigation,
the FBI questioned Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign boss, who has
reportedly had extensive business ties in Russia and other former Soviet
states, especially Ukraine, the Times noted.
The bureau’s agents also investigated an email channel between Trump and the Alfa Bank, one of Russia’s biggest banks.
After weeks of detailed investigation, the FBI concluded that the connection was nothing more than marketing emails or spam
Trump has rejected Clinton’s allegations against Russia, and has pledged to work with Moscow and earn Putin’s respect.
Credit: presstv
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