Trump blasts FBI probe
Into whether he worked for Russia
WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President Donald Trump blasted the FBI on Saturday, insisting it acted “for no reason and with no proof” when it opened an investigation into whether he was acting on Russia’s behalf after he fired the agency’s director, James Comey, in May 2017.
The New York Times reported that the FBI launched the previously undisclosed counterintelligence investigation to determine whether Trump posed a national security threat, at the same time that it opened a criminal probe into possible obstruction of justice by the president.
The FBI investigation was subsequently folded into the broader probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and possible collaboration by the Trump campaign.
No evidence has publicly emerged that Trump was secretly in contact with or took direction from Russian officials, the Times said.
“Wow, just learned in the failing New York Times that the corrupt former leaders of the FBI, almost all fired or forced to leave the agency for some very bad reasons, opened up an investigation on me, for no reason & with no proof, after I fired Lyin’ James Comey, a total sleaze!” Trump tweeted.
According to Trump, “the FBI was in complete turmoil … because of Comey’s poor leadership” and the way he handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a pri- vate server to send some government e-mails.
“My firing of James Comey was a great day for America,” Trump claimed, describing the former FBI director as “a Crooked Cop who is being totally protected by his best friend, Bob Mueller.”
The Times said that the FBI had been suspicious of Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign.
But it held off on opening an investigation until the president sacked Comey, who refused to pledge allegiance to Trump and roll back the nascent Russia investigation.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt” and views it as an attempt to besmirch the legitimacy of his presidency.
His press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said in a statement Saturday that the latest charges are “absurd,” adding, “James Comey was fired because he’s a disgraced partisan hack … (and) President Trump has actually been tough on Russia.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was CIA director at the time the investigation was launched, declined to comment on The New York Times report, but insisted in an interview with CBS that “the notion that President Trump is a threat to American national security is absolutely ludicrous.”
Mueller has issued dozens of indictments and steadily chalked up convictions of some of the president’s close associates — including his former national security adviser, his former personal lawyer, and his ex-campaign chief.