The New York Times released yet another hit piece about President Donald Trump on Friday, but White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called the story “absurd.”

The newest hit piece published by The Times claimed that FBI officials began investigating Trump for suspected ties to Russia after he fired former FBI Director James Comey.

“Agents and senior F.B.I. officials had grown suspicious of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening an investigation into him,” the report said.

If there is just a hint of truth to this report, it shows the unhinged paranoia of some FBI officials: As early as 2016, they wanted to pin “Russia collusion” on Trump without any evidence.

“But the president’s activities before and after Mr. Comey’s firing in May 2017, particularly two instances in which Mr. Trump tied the Comey dismissal to the Russia investigation, helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry,” The Times’ report continued.

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It’s abundantly clear to open-minded people today that there was no collusion between Trump and Russia, so the president obviously didn’t fire Comey for any nefarious Russian purposes.

In a statement to the press Friday afternoon, Sanders explained that Comey was fired because he’s a “disgraced partisan hack.”

“This is absurd,” she said. “James Comey was fired because he’s a disgraced partisan hack, and his Deputy Andrew McCabe, who was in charge at the time, is a known liar fired by the FBI.”

.@PressSec responds to @nytimes report that the FBI opened an inquiry into whether Trump was secretly working on behalf of Russia: pic.twitter.com/sAzRn7TIMJ

— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) January 12, 2019

Since being fired, Comey has endlessly railed against Trump’s administration instead of disappearing into the background.

Comey also has promoted his own book to profit off the controversy.

Sanders is right; Comey is a partisan hack.

But Sanders wasn’t the only one who slammed Comey — Trump also took shots at him.

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Trump described “Lyin’ James Comey” as a “total sleaze” in a tweet Saturday morning.

Wow, just learned in the Failing New York Times that the corrupt former leaders of the FBI, almost all fired or forced to leave the agency for some very bad reasons, opened up an investigation on me, for no reason & with no proof, after I fired Lyin’ James Comey, a total sleaze!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2019

It’s time to put this absurd Russian witch hunt to rest.

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