President Trump and Russia have played very big in the news circles this week. Here are three facts that are just that FACTS.

Fact # 1- U.S. President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end the agency’s investigation into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia, according to a source who has seen a memo written by  former employees Mr. Comey.

The New York Times has a stringent fact checking method. They have Fact Checking Teams’. Fact-checking teams are different. These researchers select significant political claims and set out to determine their veracity by combing through old news stories, speeches, past interviews, scientific and medical data, expert opinions, anything that could help distill fact from opinion. After that, the statements get rated, from the truthful to the ridiculous. So… if they say they saw a memo.. they saw a memo.

Fact #2 Russian Connections are Pure Fantasy

In his interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt, President Donald Trump dismissed the very idea that there was any tie between his presidential bid and the Russians.

“This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,” Trump said May 11. “It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.”

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a report expressing with “high confidence” that the Russian government put its thumb on the scale in favor of Trump.

“We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election, Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary (Hillary) Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.”-the Jan. 7, 2017 report said.

Fact #3  Can presidents secretly record White House conversations?

The simple answer is yes.On the morning of May 12, 2017, President Donald Trump tweeted, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”District of Columbia — and D.C. law allows “one-party consent” taping. That means that taping is legal as long as one participant in the conversation is aware that a recording is being made.

We all know the news comes out faster and faster these days. This should help keep it simple.