President hits out at FBI over the agent who sent anti-trump texts
● Man removed from team looking into claims of Russian meddling
President Donald Trump launched a fresh attack on the credibility of his own FBI in response to revelations an FBI agent was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russian election meddling because of anti-trump text messages.
Just two days after his former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, Trump again denied that he directed FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating Flynn.
The US President offered a running Twitter commentary yesterday (amid renewed focus on Mr Mueller’s probe and Mt Flynn’s decision to cooperate with the investigation as part of his plea agreement.
Democrats said the developments suggested growing evidence of coordination between Trump’s circle and Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
“This president has been obsessed with this investigation, always saying there’s nothing there, but each week, another shoe drops, where we see more evidence of continuing outreach from Russians and some response from the Trump campaign and Trump individuals,” said Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
In a series of tweets, Trump questioned the direction of the federal law enforcement agency and wrote that after Mr Comey, who the president fired in May, the FBI’S reputation is “in Tatters - worst in History!”
He vowed to “bring it back to greatness” and also retweeted a tweet that said new FBI director Chris Wray “needs to clean house.”
The president seized upon reports that a veteran FBI counterintelligence agent was removed from Mr Mueller’s team last summer after the discovery of an exchange of text messages that were viewed as potentially antitrump.
The agent, Peter Strzok, had also worked on the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr Mueller, said he removed Mr Strzok from the team “immediately upon learning of the allegations.”
He would not elaborate on the nature of the accusations.
Trump tweeted: “Tainted (no, very dishonest?) ‘FBI agent’s role in Clinton probe under review.’ Led Clinton Email probe.” In a separate tweet, he wrote: “Report: ‘antitrump FBI agent led Clinton email probe’ Now it all starts to make sense!”
Mr Strzok’s removal almost certainly reflected a desire to insulate the investigators from any claims of political bias or favouritism.
Trump and many of his supporters sought to discredit the integrity of the investigation, in part by claiming a close relationship between Mr Mueller and Mr Comey and by pointing to political contributions to Democrats made by some lawyers on the team.
Mr Mueller has been investigating whether Trump campaign associates coordinated with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, and Mr Strzok’s background in counterintelligence would have been seen as particularly valuable for a secretive FBI investigation examining foreign contacts.