Trump and collusion were a red herring.
Via Fox News:
An FBI counterintelligence probe into Russia meddling in the 2016 presidential election initially targeted “four Americans,” but not Republican nominee Donald Trump nor his campaign, according to former FBI Director James Comey.
The news was revealed Saturday in a 235-page transcript published by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., after hours of closed-door testimony by Comey on Friday.
Comey said “at least some” of the people targeted were affiliated with the Trump campaign in some form, but Trump himself was not under investigation into whether the four individuals colluded with Russia to tip the election in Trump’s favor.
“We opened investigations on four Americans to see if there was any connection between those four Americans and the Russian interference effort,” Comey told Gowdy. “And those four Americans did not include the candidate. At least some of them were. The FBI and the Department of Justice have not confirmed the names of those folks publicly, which is why I’m not going into the specifics.”
Comey told Rep. John Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican, that the FBI suspected the four individuals may have helped Russia interfere in the election.
“[A]t the time a defensive briefing was done for candidate Trump, do you know if the FBI had any evidence that anyone associated with the Trump campaign had colluded or conspired or coordinated with Russia in any way?” Ratcliffe asked.
“I don’t know the dates. … I don’t know whether it was before late July when we opened the four counterintelligence files, or not,” Comey replied. “And so, if it was after July 29th, then the answer would be, yes, we had some reason to suspect that there were Americans who might have assisted the Russians.”[…]
When asked if former President Barack Obama obstructed justice when he commented that Clinton’s use of a private email server lacked criminal intent, Comey said he didn’t see it that way, but it did concern him.
“So, if it doesn’t rise to the level of obstruction, how would you characterize the Chief Executive saying that the target of an investigation that was ongoing simply made a mistake and lacked the requisite criminal intent?” Gowdy asked.
“It concerns me whenever the Chief Executive comments on pending criminal investigations, something we see a lot today, which is why it concerned me when President Obama did it,” Comey replied.