Trump and his White House repeatedly denied that there were any contacts between members of the Trump campaign and Russia. They were lying.

NOW:

Trump and at least 17 of his campaign officials and advisers had more than 100 contacts with Russians before his inauguration.

New York Times: “During the 2016 presidential campaign and transition, Donald J. Trump and at least 17 campaign officials and advisers had contacts with Russian nationals and WikiLeaks, or their intermediaries, a New York Times analysis has found. At least 10 other associates were told about interactions but did not have any themselves.”

Top Trump officials have been accused of lying to investigators about their Russian contacts. They question is why did they all feel the need to lie?

Washington Post: “Trump’s former campaign chairman, deputy campaign manager, former national security adviser, personal lawyer and a campaign foreign policy adviser have all been accused of lying to investigators exploring Russia activity.”

THEN:

Trump denied any campaign contact with Russia, “with a firm ‘no.’”

Jim Acosta: “Fortunately ABC’s Cecilia Vega asked my question about whether any Trump associates contacted Russians. Trump said no.”

NBC News: “Trump did not specifically address questions regarding whether members of his staff were in contact with Russian officials during the campaign. When a reporter repeated that question to Trump afterwards as the president-elect approached the elevator to exit the room, he answered ‘No.'”

Trump said that nobody he knew of on the campaign had contacts with Russians.

Trump: “‘I have nothing to do with Russia,’ he told reporters on Thursday. ‘To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.’”

Question: “Can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with Russia during the course of the election?”

[…]

Trump: “No. Nobody that I know of. Nobody…”

Mike Pence on whether there was any contact between Trump or his associates and anyone associated with the Kremlin: “Of course not.”

Question: “Was there any contact, in any way, between Trump or his associates and the Kremlin or cutouts?”

Pence: “Of course not. Why would there be any contacts between the campaign?”

Kellyanne Conway on whether any members of the Trump campaign had contact with Russians: “Absolutely not.”

Question: “Did anyone involved in the Trump campaign have any contact with Russians trying to meddle with the election?”

Conway: “Absolutely not.”

Sarah Sanders said “no contacts took place” between the Trump campaign and Russians.

Sanders: “‘This is a nonstory because to the best of our knowledge, no contacts took place, so it’s hard to make a comment on something that never happened,’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said on Monday.”

Hope Hicks: “There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”

Hicks: “It never happened. There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”

Reince Priebus said there were no contacts between Trump associates and Russia during the 2016 campaign.

Question: “One, do you flatly deny any contact, any coordination between Mr. Trump, his campaign, his associates and the Russians in interfering?”

Priebus: “Even this question is insane. Of course, we didn’t interface with the Russians.”