I was just catching up with last Sunday’s Meet the Press, and I ran into a blockbuster admission that nobody’s caught.

Reince Priebus, President Trump’s Chief of Staff, was castigated this week for contacting the FBI about an active investigation. According to CNN, Priebus asked the FBI to “publicly knock down media reports about communications Donald Trump’s associates and Russians known to US intelligence during the 2016 presidential campaign.”

First, that the story was broken by the New York Times and CNN. Way to go, CNN! ‘Fake news’ indeed!

Why is that a problem? First, of course, it’s unseemly. If it’s an active investigation of the White House, having the White House suggest that the FBI should go out and spin the press is, at best, tawdry and morally suspect.

More importantly, we made rules after Watergate that intentionally limit any contact between the White House and the FBI about an active FBI investigation  — any investigation at all. Only four specific people are allowed to talk to the FBI about active cases: the President, the Vice President, the White House Counsel, or the Deputy WH Counsel.  That’s it. Those four are the only ones who can call, and even then, there isn’t much of a presumption of innocence.

I should mention that Trump has the power to rewrite those rules, if he chooses. If he repealed those Watergate rules that limit  undue influence, but didn’t mention it to anyone, that’s a completely different (and bad) option.

In light of that, Mr. Priebus’s claims when Chuck Todd interviewed him on Meet the Press were pretty shocking.

Todd: Did anybody — Does he know for sure that anybody on his campaign, does he, can he say definitively that nobody in his campaign, nobody that he’s been associated with, had any contacts with any Russian agents?

Priebus: No. First of all, the answer is no. And we don’t know of any contacts with Russian agents.

(Just as an aside, that probably won’t age well.)

Priebus: And that gets to that New York Times story, Chuck. I mean we’ve spent days talking about a story that says that our campaign had constant contacts with Russian spies. And I can tell you, I’ve talked to the top levels of the intelligence community. And they’ve assured me that that New York Times story was grossly overstated, and inaccurate and totally wrong.

Wait. Priebus is bragging about his close conversations with the intelligence community? And they’ve assured him about the results of an active investigation. Of the campaign and the White House?

Late, when he was answering Todd’s question about preserving White House records, Priebus riffed on the same topic:

Priebus: …I know what they were told by the F.B.I., because I’ve talked to the F.B.I. I know what they’re saying. I wouldn’t be on your show right now telling you that we’ve been assured that there’s nothing to The New York Times story if I actually wasn’t assured. And by the way, if I didn’t actually have clearance to make this comment. I’m not a sloppy guy.

Kind of makes the White house “please spin the press” admissions sound a little pale.