Trump blasts report of FBI probe
Tweets that former FBI chief was a ‘total sleaze’
President Donald Trump, in response to reports that the FBI began an investigation of him last year to find out whether he had a clandestine agenda to help Russia, said Saturday that former FBI director James Comey and other “losers” at the bureau “tried to do a number on your President.”
He called Comey a “total sleaze.” The president also swiped at special counsel Robert Mueller and the New York Times, which broke the story Friday night. “My firing of James Comey was a great day for America,” he tweeted.
Comey responded Saturday morning in a tweet that quoted President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”
The newspaper said the decision to investigate Trump himself was an aggressive move by FBI officials confronting the chaotic aftermath of the firing of Comey and enduring the president’s verbal assaults on the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt.”
Although the report was published Friday night and prompted a sharp response from White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump did not weigh in until 7:05 a.m Saturday.
“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!”
In a series of tweets, he said the FBI was in “complete turmoil” at the time because of Comey’s “poor leadership” and his handling of an investigation of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. He repeated his long-held contention that “getting along with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing.”
“This is absurd. James Comey was fired because he’s a disgraced partisan hack, and his Deputy Andrew Mccabe, who was in charge at the time, is a known liar fired by the FBI,” Sanders said. “Unlike President Obama, who let Russia and other foreign adversaries push America around, President Trump has actually been tough on Russia.”