Trump wants FBI, DOJ inquiry
His campaign was ‘infiltrated or surveilled’ for ‘political purposes,’ president says
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Sunday that he would demand that the Justice Department explore whether it or the FBI “infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes” — perhaps signaling the start of a showdown between the nation’s chief executive and its federal law enforcement apparatus.
After several tweets against the year-old special counsel probe into his campaign, Trump wrote, “I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Depart- ment of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes — and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!”
The tweet seemed to be a response to recent reports about the FBI using a longtime intelligence asset to advance its investigation into Russian election interference. Trump and his allies have seized on the use of the asset to say the FBI has spied on his campaign.
The president’s impending demand is significant: the nation’s chief executive ordering an investigation into the investigation of his campaign. But it could also presage more important developments.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has sought documents on the FBI’s use of the asset and has been rebuffed by Justice Department leaders, who say that exposing the source or the source’s work could put him in danger. The president could order the department to hand over the materials, potentially sparking significant backlash among top officials there and in the broader intelligence community.
Law enforcement had considered the source’s identity so sensitive that FBI had worked over the past two weeks to mitigate the potential damage if his name was revealed. It is possible that officials could resign in protest or refuse the president’s order and force him to fire them.
But the president’s tweet also left open the possibility that such a conflict could be averted.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced in March that he would explore controversial applications to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, along with the department’s relationship with a former British intelligence officer who provided information cited for those requests. That review will assess whether the FBI and the Justice Department complied with the law and their own policies in requesting and carrying out the surveillance. Horowitz also said that he would examine other matters that might arise from his work.
It is possible that Horowitz’s work might have naturally led him to look at the FBI’s use of the confidential source, who had contact with Page, in the Russia investigation. The Justice Department would also not necessarily chafe at an internal look at its conduct. A Justice Department spokeswoman offered no immediate response.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Rudy Giuliani, the president’s attorney, said Trump was “doing what the president should do. He’s telling the Justice Department the obvious, which is — they should turn over information gleaned from this source.” But he offered less-than-clear answers on what the president’s ultimate directive would be.