WASHINGTON— Amid a rush of weekend tweets taking aim at targets old and new, President Donald Trump criticized the FBI and raised questions about the special prosecutor’s investigation into Russian election meddling and possible ties to his campaign.
The Twitter storm more than a dozen tweets Saturday and Sunday came after his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. In one his messages, Trump again denied that he directed FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating Flynn.
Trump questioned the direction of the federal law enforcement agency and wrote that after Comey, whom 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 new FBI Director Chris Wray “needs to clean house.”
Former Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted in response: “Nope. Not letting this go. The FBI’s reputation is not in “tatters”. It’s composed of the same dedicated men and women who have always worked there and who do a great, apolitical job. You’ll find integrity and honesty at FBI headquarters and not at 1600 Penn Ave right now.”
Trump seized on reports that a veteran FBI counterintelligence agent was removed from special prosecutor Robert 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 private email server.
Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, said Mueller removed Strzok from the team “immediately upon learning of the allegations.” He would not elaborate on the nature of the accusations. The person who discussed the matter with The Associated Press was not authorized to speak about it by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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 starts to make sense!”
Strzok’s removal almost certainly reflected a desire to insulate the investigators from any claims of political bias or favouritism. Trump and many of his supporters have at times sought to discredit the integrity of the investigation, in part by claiming a close relationship between Mueller and Comey and by pointing to political contributions to Democrats made by some lawyers on the team.
Following the tweets, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned the president to tread cautiously. “You tweet and comment regarding ongoing criminal investigations at your own peril. I’d be careful if I were you, Mr. President. I’d watch this,” Graham said.
On Saturday, 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 was nothing to hide!”
The tweet suggested that Trump was aware when the White House dismissed Flynn on Feb. 13 that he had lied to the FBI, which had interviewed him weeks earlier. Comey has said Trump the following day brought up the Flynn investigation in private at the White House and told him he hoped he could “let this go.”
With questions raised by the tweet, Trump associates tried to put distance Saturday evening between the president himself and the tweet. Trump’s personal lawyer John Dowd told ABC News that he drafted the tweet and gave it to the president’s social media director Dan Scavino. Dowd had declined to comment when reached by the AP on Saturday night.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, 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 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,” 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.”
Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said given that Mueller could have charged Flynn with more crimes but instead limited it to just one offence, “Bob Mueller must have concluded that he was getting a lot of value in terms of Gen. Flynn’s co-operation.”
“I do believe he will incriminate others in the administration. Otherwise, there was no reason for Bob Mueller to give Mike Flynn this kind of deal,” Schiff said, adding, “Whether that will ultimately lead to the president, I simply don’t know.”
Feinstein spoke on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Graham spoke on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” and Schiff spoke on ABC’s “This Week.”