The FBI has evidence indicating associates of Donald Trump may have coordinated with Russia over the release of information intended to damage the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton last year, according to a report on CNN.

According to the network's source, "people connected to the campaign were in contact and it appeared they were giving the thumbs up to release information when it was ready". 

Sources cautioned that the evidence is largely circumstantial.  This information in CNN's report was partially referenced by FBI Director James Comey during Monday's appearance before Congress, when he said the FBI is investigating the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.  It includes human intelligence, travel, business and phone records and accounts of in-person meetings.  The sources reportedly told CNN that potential collusion between Trump associates and Russian officials is now a large focus of the FBI investigation.

It came after yet another stunning day as America watched its political systems break down before the nation's eyes.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is under fire for leaking information to Donald Trump about the ongoing investigation into whether Trump's campaign collaborated with Russia to swing the election to his favor.  Devin Nunes - a Republican farmer from rural California with no military or intelligence experience before his congressional career - completely bypassed his own committee and its strong tradition of bipartisanship to announce that a mysterious, unnamed source told him that "on numerous occasions the Intelligence Community incidentally collected information about US citizens involved in the Trump transition".

This would seem to have been an attempt to help Trump, who has made the completely idiotic claim that President Barack Obama had British spies wiretap Trump Tower during last year's campaign.  But Nunes claimed that all of the information that was gathered legally, as part of "incidental collection" that occurs when US citizens are captured speaking with lawful non-US targets of surveillance under top-secret court orders.  In other words, Trump's team were caught speaking to foreigners under criminal surveillance.

But Nunes didn't stop there.  He actually went to the White House to personally deliver this information to Trump.  Imagine if you will a prosecutor going to pay tribute to the subject of a criminal investigation before any charges are even filed and handing over the evidence.  And BTW, if this information was gathered under the approval of the top-secret FISA court, it means that Nunes potentially leaked classified information.  And even though the orange clown said he felt "partially vindicated" by Nunes' errand boy performance, the information does nothing to back Trump's spurilous claims.

The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, also of California, expressed his "grave concerns" directly to Nunes that his behavior made it difficult to conduct "a credible investigation". 

"The chairman will need to decide whether he is the chairman of an independent investigation into conduct which includes allegations of potential coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians, or he is going to act as a surrogate of the White House, because he cannot do both," Schiff said.

Schiff said he now believes only a non-political, independent investigation like the 9/11 Commission can now be trusted with investigating Trump.  Influential Republican Senator John McCain said Nunes' behavior means the House Intelligence Committee lost "the credibility to handle this alone", and a special select committee should take over the congressional investigation into Trump's ties to Moscow.