Trump ‘fires’ away

Flynn, Comey rants

President Trump launched a predawn Twitter attack on the Russian probe Sunday, defending his firing of former National Security Adviser Michaell Flynn and accusing ex-FBI Director James Comey of leaving the bureau “in tatters” over the Hillary Clinton email investigation. “I never asked Comey to stop investigating Flynn. Just more Fake News covering another Comey lie!” Trump posted at 5:15 a.m., the start of a nearlyl 2¹/ 2-hour rant knocking special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about his communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. In a tweet on Saturday, Trump said he had to fire Flynn in February because he lied to Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI. “He has pled guilty to those lies,” Trump posted on Twitter. Later, the White House claimed John Dowd, the president’s lawyer, wrote the tweet and passed it to White House social-media director Dan Scavino, who posted it to Trump’s personal account rather than the @POTUS one.

But Rep. Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, said it was the message, not its author,autho that was troubling.

“The president knew he [Flynn] had lied to the FBI, which means that when he talked to the FBI director and asked him to effectively drop this case, he knew that Flynn had committed a federal crime,” the California lawmaker told ABC’s “This Week.” “So, to me, frankly, it’s more serious coming from the attorney than it would have been just coming directly from the president.” Trump had fired Comey in May. “After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters,” Trump tweeted Sunday.

FBI Agents Association head Thomas O’Connor shot back, saying the bureau’s agents are dedicated to their mission and “suggesting otherwise is simply false.”