‘People are very, very angry... we’ll rebuild the FBI,’ says Trump
President says people are ‘very angry’
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump said that “people are very, very angry” about the conduct of the FBI and said he would “rebuild” the bureau as he left the White House yesterday to participate in a graduation ceremony for police undergoing FBI training in Virginia.
Republicans are trying to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election by highlighting reports that two FBI officials texted each other negative personal opinions about the president.
Mr Trump appeared to be referencing those concerns in his remarks before boarding the presidential helicopter.
It was not clear what he meant by his promise to “rebuild” the bureau.
He tweeted on December 3 that the FBI’s “reputation is in tatters” because of alleged mismanagement by James Comey, the director he fired earlier this year.
Mr Trump also said in response to a question that “I don’t want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet”.
Mr Flynn, his first national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI on December 1 and is co-operating with Mr Mueller’s investigation. Mr Trump didn’t elaborate on the remark.
Mr Trump claimed that “it’s a shame what’s happened” with the FBI, calling its handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation “really disgraceful”.
Speaking to reporters as he left for a speech at the FBI training academy in Quantico, Mr Trump promised that “we’re going to rebuild the FBI”.
He also referred to newly revealed edits to Mr Comey’s 2016 statement on the Clinton probe: “It is very sad when you look at those documents, how they’ve done that is really, really disgraceful, and you have a lot of really angry people who are seeing it.”
He also reiterated that “there was no collusion” between his campaign and the Russian government, adding the recent revelations prove his claim that the Ms Clinton investigation was “rigged”.
Earlier, his deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told Fox News Channel that edits to Mr Comey’s statement on Ms Clinton’s private email server and text messages from a top agent critical of Mr Trump are “deeply troubling”.
“There is extreme bias against this president with high-up members of the team there at the FBI who were investigating Hillary Clinton at the time,” he said.
The claims emerged as Mr Mueller pressed on with an investigation into Trump campaign links to Russia.
Mr Gidley said Mr Trump maintains confidence in the FBI’s rank-and-file.
Edits to the Comey draft appeared to soften the gravity of the bureau’s finding in its 2016 investigation of Ms Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state.
Mr Gidley said the disclosure of politically charged text messages sent by one of the agents on the Clinton case, Peter Strzok, were “eye-opening”.
Mr Strzok, who was in the room as Ms Clinton was interviewed, was later assigned to Mr Mueller’s team to investigate potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. He was re-assigned after the messages were uncovered this summer.
Asked about a phone conversation he had earlier with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr Trump said Mr Putin said some “very nice things” about him during their phone call.
“He said very nice things about what I’ve done for this country in terms of the economy, then he said also some negative things in terms of what’s going on elsewhere.”
He said the primary topic of their conversation was North Korea.
Mr Trump said he wants Mr Putin’s help dealing with the nation.
US intelligence agencies have concluded Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help Mr Trump win.
Numerous investigations are under way to determine whether Mr Trump’s campaign aided the Kremlin in its efforts.
Mr Trump repeated his denials yesterday, insisting: “There is absolutely no collusion. That has been proven.”