The U.S. Justice Department, under pressure from President Donald Trump, is asking its inspector general to explore whether political motivation played a role in how the FBI conducted its counterintelligence investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The Justice Department acted after Trump on Sunday demanded the agency look into whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation “infiltrated or surveilled” his campaign “for Political Purposes — and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!”
The Justice Department said it had asked its inspector general to expand its current review of use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “application process to include determining whether there was any impropriety or political motivation” in how a retired American professor came to be used as an FBI informant about his contacts with three Trump campaign officials.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal investigation of the Russian interference, said, “If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action.”
The Justice Department action averted a potential showdown with Trump.
Within minutes of the president’s tweets demanding the investigation, members of the administration of former President Barack Obama and others reacted with alarm. They said they believed the Trump demand for the investigation was potentially the most serious intervention into the U.S. judicial system since the president fired FBI Director James Comey while he was investigating Trump’s campaign before Rosenstein named Mueller to take over the probe.
Trump on Saturday complained the FBI and the Justice Department infiltrated his campaign through use of the informant. Several news agencies have identified the informant as Stefan Halper, a 73-year-old American-born professor at Britain’s University of Cambridge who had worked decades ago in three other Republican administrations.
Dangerous to democracy
Ned Price, who served on the National Security Council under Obama told VOA Trump’s charge is dangerous to American democracy. Price said the president is “officially knocking down the firewall between policy and law enforcement — an indispensable element of the rule of law. And he’s doing so for his own personal ends.”
Former NSC spokesman Tommy Vietor tweeted, “This is crossing a massive red line. Trump is forcing DOJ to conduct a politicized investigation — something he himself conceded he shouldn’t do.”
It is not clear whether Trump, when he makes the formal request for the investigation on Monday, will ask for a general investigation or specifically call on the Justice Department to make public certain materials about the FBI’s counterintelligence process or the identity of sources.
Trump further complained Sunday about the yearlong investigation into whether his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia and if he obstructed justice by trying to thwart the probe.
“Things are really getting ridiculous,” Trump complained in one the Twitter remarks, asking at what point the investigation will end, calling it a “soon to be $20,000,000 Witch Hunt,” although the cost appears to be much less.
He contended investigators have “found no Collussion [sic] with Russia, No Obstruction, but they aren’t looking at the corruption” in the campaign of his Democratic challenger two years ago, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Trump said the investigation by special counsel Mueller “has given up on Russia and is looking at the rest of the world” and its connections to the Trump campaign.
He said Mueller “should easily be able” to extend the inquiries into the congressional elections in November where he and his team “can put some hurt on the Republican Party.”
He added, “Republicans and real Americans should start getting tough on this Scam.”
Ending by September?
One of Trump’s attorneys, Rudy Giuliani, told several news organizations Sunday that Mueller told him the obstruction part of the probe could end by September 1.
He echoed Trump’s concerns that an extended investigation could hurt Republicans in the November congressional elections.
There has been no comment from Mueller’s office.
Giuliani also said the two sides were still negotiating whether Trump will be interviewed as part of the investigation.
Mueller has already indicted numerous Russian individuals and entities for interference in the U.S. election through the creation of fake news stories commenting on contentious American issues. He has also secured guilty pleas from three Trump campaign associates who are cooperating with prosecutors in the investigation.
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