President Donald Trump has once again lined up the FBI and the Department of Justice and opened fire with both barrels. Once-upon-a-time, it would have been unthinkable for the U.S. president to publicly cast doubt on the integrity of the FBI, law-enforcement, or the Justice Department, Donald Trump has changed all of that. President Trump has attacked the agencies on numerous occasions, and once again this morning he has let his frustrations over special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia inquiry spill over into a public attack on Twitter.
In the last few moments, President Trump has used his favorite method of attack to criticize the FBI, the Department of Justice, and, of course, Hillary Clinton. Trump once again claims that the FBI and the Justice Department are politically biased against him and the GOP. Of course, Trump has always claimed that the Mueller investigation into alleged collusion between his election campaign and Russia is nothing more than a politically inspired “witch hunt.” Later today, Trump is expected to order the release of a secret GOP memo that alleges that the Mueller investigation is “politically tainted.”
According to the Washington Post , the controversial memo alleges that the FBI obtained authority to carry out surveillance on members of the Trump election campaign team based on the GPS Fusion dossier that President Trump claims is fake.
The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans – something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2018
“You had Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party try to hide the fact that they gave money to GPS Fusion to create a Dossier which was used by their allies in the Obama Administration to convince a Court misleadingly, by all accounts, to spy on the Trump Team.” Tom Fitton, JW
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2018
Trump claims that the dossier was paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic Party. Law enforcement officials object to the GOP memo being released because it contains classified information and inaccuracies.
As reported by NBC News , some Republicans, including Representatives Charlie Dent and Jeff Flake, object to the memo being publicly released. Republican House Speaker, Paul Ryan, has cautioned all sides that they should not read too much into the GOP memo, saying that “it does not impugn the Mueller investigation or the deputy attorney general.”
The latest firestorm from President Trump comes as Politico reports that lawyers representing key Trump associates believe that Trump is about to become the first sitting U.S. president to face criminal charges. In recent months it has become clear that possible obstruction of justice charges are at the very center of Mueller’s investigation.
One of the lawyers cited his interactions with the Mueller investigation team, claiming that questioning had focused on whether President Trump had attempted to “derail” the Russia investigation. That lawyer claimed that “If I were a betting man, I’d bet against the president.”
The potential obstruction of justice charges against President Trump is likely to center on his firing of former FBI Director James Comey who hit out at Trump on Twitter.
All should appreciate the FBI speaking up. I wish more of our leaders would. But take heart: American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up. Not a lot of schools or streets named for Joe McCarthy.
— James Comey (@Comey) February 1, 2018
Comey stated that “American history shows that, in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up. ” It would seem that Comey’s comments were, once again, aimed directly at President Trump.
