Trump gets feds to probe FBI
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S factually dubious claim that the FBI planted a “spy” in his campaign is gaining traction among the top tiers of the Justice Department.
After Trump sat down with FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at the White House Monday, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that the Justice Department will probe “any irregularities” in the tactics used by the FBI in the early days of its investigation into the Trump campaign.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who’s already looking into concerns the FBI improperly surveilled Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, will lead the investigation, according to Sanders.
Sanders also said chief of staff John Kelly will meet with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, congressional leaders and FBI and Justice Department officials to comb through “highly classified and other information they have requested.” Sanders didn’t specify what the information relates to, but her announcement comes as the President and congressional Republicans continue to rail against the FBI over its reported use of a mole to monitor Trump’s campaign. The informant, who has been identified in multiple reports as a foreign policy scholar and professor at a British university, was labeled a “spy” by Trump in a tweet Friday. On Sunday, Trump made an extraordinary demand that the Justice Department investigate whether the informant “infiltrated or surveilled” his campaign for “political purposes.” Over the weekend, reports said the snitch met with campaign advisers Sam Clovis, George Papadopoulos and Page, all of whom had suspicious contacts linked to Russia. There’s no evidence to suggest the informant was anything but a confidential source for the FBI, as it first began to look into the Trump campaign’s various ties to Russia ahead of the 2016 election. Ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the latest addition to Trump’s legal team, conceded Friday that neither he nor the President knew “for sure” whether there was an informant