Journalistic Malpractice: NY Times Shoddy Reporting, Mysterious Official says FBI Dir James Comey Allegedly Asks Justice Dept to Reject Trump's Wiretapping Claims

I've seen some sloppy reporting in my day. 
But, this piece of tripe written by MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and MICHAEL D. SHEAR should be given an award for the sloppiest attempt of writing an opinion piece masquerading as a hard news.  The headline of the piece leads the reader to think that FBI Director James Comey has thrown cold water over President Trump's claims that former President Barack Obama wiretapped the Trump campaign.  Just one little problem.  There isn't a direct quote from Comey saying anything.  The Times is resting their information on a "senior American oficiall" which I find quite curious.  They didn't say senior government official or senior FBI official.  So what conclusion can we draw from this?  Not exactly solid hard hitting news reporting.        

NY Times reports the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones, senior American officials said on Sunday. Mr. Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, they said, but the department has not released any such statement.

Mr. Comey, who made the request on Saturday after Mr. Trump leveled his allegation on Twitter, has been working to get the Justice Department to knock down the claim because it falsely insinuates that the F.B.I. broke the law, the officials said.

 More here

I don't see anything in Trump's claims that points the finger of blame on the FBI.  The Times writers are making a conclusion without a basis in facts.  The alleged wiretapping could have been performed by any of the 17 intelligence agencies we always hear about.  Whose to know?  That's what an investigation is for.