Report: Burr passed FBI probe info to White House

WASHINGTON — The Republican running the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election appears to have passed information regarding the status of the FBI’s probe of Russian influence on to the White House Counsel’s Office in early 2017, according to special counsel Robert Mueller III’s report.

The report states that the White House Counsel’s Office “appears to have received information about the status of the FBI investigation” from Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., in March 2017, just about a week after former FBI Director James Comey briefed the “Gang of Eight” — the congressional leaders privy to the most sensitive intelligence — about the bureau’s Russia investigation.

Through a spokeswoman, Burr said Thursday that he did not recall any such conversation taking place.

“Chairman Burr does not recall this specific conversation with Mr. McGahn in March of 2017; however, any conversations between the two would have been in reference to the need for White House personnel to voluntarily comply with the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation,” intelligence committee spokeswoman Caitlin Carroll said in a statement. “If specific individuals were discussed, they would have been those known to the Committee, the White House, and the media. The Chairman’s stewardship over the Committee’s bipartisan and fact-based investigation over the last two years speaks for itself.”

Comey’s briefing about the FBI’s Russia investigation with the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate, as well as the heads of the intelligence committees, took place March 9, 2017. On March 20, Comey confirmed publicly during a House Intelligence Committee hearing that the FBI was looking into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin — the FBI’s first official acknowledgment it had been looking into such matters since late July 2017.

Burr’s conversation with former White House counsel Donald McGahn’s office appears to have taken place March 16, 2017, according to information McGahn’s chief of staff at the time, Annie Donaldson, provided to the special counsel’s probe.

According to Donaldson’s notes at the time, Burr told them about the existence of four to five “targets,” identified as former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, former Trump campaign adviser Paul Manafort, and the “Greek Guy,” presumably former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, Mueller’s report surmises.