President Trump and his allies are pushing back against the notion that “Spygate” — their preferred framing of a key moment in the Trump-Russia investigation — is fading in importance after some frequent defenders of the president cast doubt on the story.

Sources close to the White House contend that surveillance of the Trump campaign remains a legitimate issue and the president was right to demand the Justice Department’s inspector general investigate.

Spygate is Trump’s name for the FBI’s use of at least one confidential informant to make contact with members of his campaign during the 2016 presidential election. “The corrupt Mainstream Media is working overtime not to mention the infiltration of people, Spies (Informants), into my campaign!” Trump tweeted last week. “Surveillance much?”

The biggest development was House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., one of the nine lawmakers and five Republicans briefed on the issue by the Justice Department at the White House, defending the FBI in an apparent break with GOP legislators who had been raising questions about the Russia probe.

Gowdy won praise from Democrats and typically anti-Trump editorial boards. The Washington Post called him “one senior Republican with enough decency to admit the obvious.” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said there was “still cause for concern” and her deputy Hogan Gidley told reporters aboard Air Force One that Gowdy and Trump agreed “there's still not one shred of information that has anything to do with Russia collusion, obstruction of any kind.”

“Just because one influential Capitol Hill Republican who is about to retire says the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign was kosher, doesn’t make it so,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “There are simply too many outstanding questions, ranging from who ordered it to when it was ordered to why it was ordered to why Donald Trump wasn’t briefed about it for Gowdy’s assertions to be accepted as gospel.”

“Let’s also not forget Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director, was fired for misconduct,” O’Connell said. “So, the Spygate drumbeat marches on until further notice.”

Read more from W. James Antle III at the Washington Examiner

As President Donald Trump prepares to deliver his first State of the Union address before Congress on Tuesday night, the investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 election and the latest controversies to spin out of it continue to loom over his presidency.

Trump enters the chamber of the House of Representatives Tuesday with a 4.1 percent unemployment rate, a record high stock market, three straight quarters of strong economic growth, military victories in the Middle East, and many Americans already benefiting from the tax reform bill he signed last month.

However, he also enters the chamber with a special counsel investigation of possible ties between the Kremlin and his campaign ongoing, four former campaign aides facing criminal charges, multiple congressional probes, and accusations that he is trying to politicize the law enforcement and intelligence-gathering apparatuses of government.

“From Trump’s perspective, obviously he wants to be talking about the memo,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “I’m not so sure that he wants to be talking about it at the moment.”

That said, O’Connell doubts the memo discussion will drastically alter the public’s reception of Trump’s speech any more than various other Russia-related stories will.

“I don’t think it’s going to have any impact on the speech,” he said. “It’s not like the Russia probe hasn’t been hanging over the president’s head since he took office.”

Read more from Stephen Loiaconi at WJLA

As allegations pile up against two former members of the special counsel’s office, Obama administration intelligence officials, and former Justice Department leaders, President Trump and his allies have stepped up their criticism of the FBI and called into question the objectivity of the team created to look into allegations the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

But the president could risk overplaying his hand by whipping up his base over allegations against the investigation that could yet prove exaggerated or unfounded. And his involvement in promoting these allegations against the FBI may automatically dissuade much of the public, Democrats, and media from taking the situation seriously.

"President Trump needs to keep beating the drum on this front, albeit in a more strategic manner,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist. “The reason is simple: Trump has the biggest megaphone, and when he talks about it, everyone — voters and media — is forced to talk about it, and it becomes part of the national conversation.”

Read more from Sarah Westwood at the Washington Examiner

President Trump and his allies escalated their war of words against the FBI this week, claiming bias among investigators looking into the Trump campaign as Democrats warned that such attacks could set the stage for the removal of special counsel Robert Mueller.

After days of going after the FBI, whose reputation he said was “in tatters,” Trump took aim at the bureau’s handling of two allegedly biased agents on Friday as he left the White House for an event at the FBI Academy.

His allies maintain that the FBI’s top brass is filled with anti-Trump animus.

Mueller removed a top investigator, Peter Stzrok, after discovering Stzrok had exchanged anti-Trump text messages with another FBI employee, Lisa Page, with whom he had a romantic relationship. Some of Stzrok’s texts to Page from last year expressed open support for Hillary Clinton, whose private email use was at the center of an investigation Stzrok was overseeing at the time.

The messages, along with donations from members of Mueller’s team to Democratic campaigns and some to Clinton directly, have raised questions about the special counsel’s pursuit of Trump.

Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist, said Trump’s efforts to highlight alleged corruption on Mueller’s team could be part of an insurance policy to protect the White House should any high-level aides face legal trouble in the investigation into alleged Russian collusion.

“This is a classic case of triangulation by President Trump and his allies to guard against the ultimate findings of Mueller's special counsel,” O’Connell said. “Trump knows that he can't fire Muller because if he does, pandemonium will be unleashed and the whole special counsel could blow up in his face.”

O’Connell said Trump believes he can win the argument against Mueller “in the court of public opinion”because his allegations against the FBI, that some agents investigating Clinton and the Trump campaign harbored partisan biases, are “based in part in truth.”

Read more from Sarah Westwood at the Washington Examiner

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s guilty plea on Friday to one charge of lying to FBI agents eclipsed a week of relative successes for President Trump and raised questions about how the White House would respond to the first criminal charges against someone who once worked in the West Wing.

During a week that saw President Trump win a legal battle over control of a federal agency, successfully advance one of his top legislative priorities, and score an optics win by hosting a Christmas party that some reporters boycotted, Flynn’s indictment on one count of making false statements to investigators still emerged as the most explosive story of the past five days.

Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist, said the speculation surrounding Flynn’s cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller would create uncomfortable headlines for the president but wouldn’t derail the tax reform agenda currently making its way through Congress.

“No one on Capitol Hill is going to go, ‘Oh, gee, Flynn copped a plea, now I’m not going to vote for tax reform,’” O’Connell said.

But O’Connell noted the Flynn news would “overshadow all the good things that happened this week.”

White House officials have been operating under a “Russian cloud” since even before Mueller’s appointment over the summer, O’Connell noted, and congressional Republicans have already factored the allegations into their calculations about whether to support the president’s agenda.

Read more from Sarah Westwood at the Washington Examiner

Tomorrow’s confirmation hearing for FBI Director nominee Christopher Wray will likely focus as much on his predecessor, James B. Comey, as on his own record.

The hearing could also be overshadowed by Trump’s tweet yesterday, reigniting the controversy over Comey’s firing.

“James Comey leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media. That is so illegal!” Trump chirped, a claim that Comey’s friend and Columbia University law professor Daniel Richman — who disclosed details about one Comey memo to the press in May — denies.

“The guy is going to keep tweeting, and yes, to some extent that hangs over” Wray’s hearing, said GOP strategist Ford O’Connell. “But whether Trump tweets or doesn’t tweet, the Democrats are going to throw everything but the kitchen sink at Wray anyway.”

Read more from Kimberly Atkins at the Boston Herald

President Trump worked this week to revive his legislative agenda and kick off his administration's pursuit of an infrastructure overhaul, but the attention devoted to former FBI Director James Comey's congressional testimony demonstrated how difficult it will be to get back on track.

Trump's efforts to expedite legislative priorities that had stalled amid controversy included a meeting with House and Senate leaders on Tuesday, which was followed by a private dinner with a handful of national-security-focused Republican lawmakers that evening.

Ford O'Connell, a Republican strategist, said the GOP could be running out of time to notch any legislative accomplishments before the midterm elections sweep some Republican House members out of office.

"Congressional Republicans have to grow a backbone. They have to realize that, in terms of numbers, it's not going to get any better than it is right now," O'Connell said of the House majority. "You've got to produce some deliverables, basically."

Trump's top two legislative priorities — an Obamacare overhaul and tax reform — have hit roadblocks in the House and Senate thanks to dissent within Republican ranks about the direction of those policies. And this week, administration officials piled on a third policy initiative by announcing its renewed push for an infrastructure package before the end of the year.

"When we talk about Obamacare and we talk about tax reform or tax cuts, these are not just Trump items that are just separate from the GOP agenda like, say, the wall might be," O'Connell noted. "These are items that [Republicans] promised no matter who the president is."

Read more from Sarah Westwood at the Washington Examiner

James Comey’s appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday will be the most dramatic congressional testimony in decades. 

Comey, who was fired as FBI director last month, could inflict real damage on President Trump with his testimony — and for a few hours, he’ll have the nation’s full attention. 

Broadcast TV networks, as well as their cable counterparts, have cleared their schedules to provide wall-to-wall live coverage of the hearing, which is set to begin at 10 a.m. CNN has even started a countdown clock.

Comey has said it will be the only public testimony he will give on recent events, according to the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr (R-N.C.).

The feverish atmosphere ahead of the former FBI director’s appearance is unlike anything seen in Washington in decades.

Republican strategist Ford O’Connell suggested Democrats could be overestimating the effects of Comey’s testimony.

“There is only one question that matters for the president, and that is, ‘Is James Comey going to say he obstructed justice?’ ” he said. “According to ABC News, he is not going to do that.”

But with all eyes in Washington on the hearing on Thursday, the stakes could hardly be higher.

Read more from Niall Stanage at The Hill

President Trump faces a critical week deciding on a new FBI director who experts urged should be free of “political baggage” following Trump’s ouster of James B. Comey.

“He should treat the process with the same reverence as selecting a Supreme Court justice. At the end of the day, he should strive for someone who doesn’t have political baggage and who can make the career folks at the FBI and DOJ comfortable, given that they are currently on pins and needles,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist.

Trump faced a political firestorm last week after firing Comey, who was leading an investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election and possible collusion with Trump aides.

Trump abruptly fired Comey on Tuesday, saying Comey had lost the confidence of the public and his own intelligence agency.

So far, 14 people have emerged as candidates, including Michael J. Garcia, a former prosecutor and associate judge on New York’s highest court; Alice Fisher, a high-ranking official with the Justice Department under George W. Bush’s administration; and Adam Lee, a special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Richmond, Va.

Trump has said a decision could come before he leaves for his first overseas trip as president on Friday.

Read more from Antonio Planas at the Boston Herald

The Justice Department began interviews Wednesday for an interim director of the FBI, with the stakes of the selection heightened by the political mess being inherited by the successor to former Director James B. Comey.

Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is filling the role for now, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions is leading a search to fill the role on a more-lasting basis, even as the Trump administration also looks for a permanent director.

Some high-profile names have already emerged for the permanent nomination, with the list being topped by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who previously served as a U.S. attorney, and former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, a fellow New Yorker who shares Mr. Trump’s tough-on-crime stance.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, a law-and-order crusader who was a campaign surrogate for Mr. Trump, and Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a former federal prosecutor who headed up the House special committee probe of Benghazi, were also mentioned.

Whoever is installed now to head the FBI will inherit the ongoing investigation into potential ties between Trump associates and Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.

“He certainly should consider someone without political baggage in an effort to try to bring credibility back to the FBI,” said GOP strategist Ford O’Connell. “But, in the end, he has got to get someone he feels comfortable with and someone who can also get 51 votes in the United States Senate.”

Read more from Andrea Noble and S.A. Miller at the Washington Times