Trump: FBI’s reputation is ‘in Tatters’
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump launched a fresh attack Sunday on the credibility of his own FBI, responding to revelations that an FBI agent was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team investigating Russian election meddling because of antiTrumptext messages.
Mr. Trump, two days after his former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, again denied that he directed FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating Mr.Flynn.
Hours later, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer said on Sunday that the president knew in late January that Mr. Flynn had probably given FBI agents the same inaccurate account he provided to Vice President Mike Pence about a call with the Russian ambassador.
Trump lawyer John Dowd said the info was passed to Mr. Trump by White House counsel Donald McGahn, who had been warned about Mr. Flynn’s statement to the vice president by a senior Justice Department official. The vice president said publicly at the time that Mr. Flynn had told him he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian diplomat — a statementdisproved by a U.S. intelligence intercept of a phone call between Mr. Flynn and then-Russian AmbassadorSergey Kislyak.
The Republican president offered a running Twitter commentary Sunday amid renewed focus on Mr. Mueller’s probe and Mr. Flynn’s decision to cooperate with the investigation as part of his plea agreement. Democrats said the developments suggested growing evidence of coordination between Mr. Trump’s circle and Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the panel is beginning to see “the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice” against Mr. Trump.
“I think we see this in indictments ... and some of the comments that are being made. I see this in the hyperfrenetic attitude of the White House, the comments every day, the continual tweets,” Ms. Feinstein said. “And I see it most importantly in what happened with the firing of Director Comey, and it is my belief that that is directly because he did not agree to lift the cloud of the Russia investigation. That’s obstruction of justice.”
In a series of tweets, Mr. Trump questioned the direction of the federal law enforcement agency and wrote that after Mr. Comey, whom Mr. Trump fired in May, the FBI’s reputation is “in Tatters — worst in History!” He vowed to “bring it back to greatness.” The president also retweeted a post saying newFBI Director Chris Wray “needsto clean house.”
The president seized on 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 anti-Trump. The agent, Peter Strzok, had also worked on the investigation of Democrat Hillary Clinton’s use of a privateemail server.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mr. Mueller, said Mr. Mueller removed Agent Strzok from the team “immediately upon learning of the allegations.” He would not elaborate on the nature of the accusations.
Mr. Trump tweeted Sunday: “Tainted (no, very dishonest?) FBI ‘agent’s role in Clinton probe under review.’ Led Clinton Email probe.” In a separate tweet, he wrote: “Report: ‘ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENT LED CLINTON EMAIL PROBE’ Now it all startsto make sense!”
Agent Strzok’s removal reflected a desire to insulate the investigators from any claims of political bias or favoritism. Mr. Trump has at times sought to discredit the integrity of the investigation.
Mr. Mueller has been investigating whether Trump campaign associates coordinated with Russia to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. His investigation has so far netted charges against four people, with the most recent criminal case brought Friday when Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with theRussian ambassador.
On Saturday, Mr. Trump tweeted that he “had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There wasnothing to hide!”
The tweet suggested that Mr. Trump was aware when the White House dismissed Mr. Flynn on Feb. 13 that he had lied to the FBI, which had interviewed him weeks earlier. Mr. Comey has said Mr.Trump the following day brought up the Flynn probe in private at the White House and told him he hoped he could “let this go.”
Mr. Dowd confirmed Sunday that he had actually drafted the tweet for Mr. Trump and acknowledged that it was sloppily worded.