BREAKING: FBI Has Been Investigating Trump as Possible Russian Agent Since 2017

A quick hit since I haven’t seen anything on this here yet, no doubt others will do it far more justice.

But the NYT just broke a story on how the FBI has been investigating Donald Trump, not his campaign, which we’ve known about for some time, but Trump himself, since May 2017, shortly after he fired then-FBI director James Comey, for potentially being a literal, actual Russian agent. MSNBC is covering this breaking story right now.

While not surprising, it’s still stunning. A US president is potentially a foreign agent. Not someone who’s acting as if he was one, but actually is one.

What led them to opening the investigation was his behavior, which seemed consistent with that of a Russian agent. E.g. hiring people with close ties to Russian oligarchs and Putin, praising Putin, refusing to condemn Russian aggression, firing Comey when he refused to take it easy on another possible Russian asset, Flynn.

• In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials were alarmed by the president’s behavior.
• Counterintelligence investigators had to consider an explosive question: whether Mr. Trump’s actions constituted a possible threat to national security.