President Donald Trump isn’t undercutting the FBI or the Department of Justice’s Russia investigation by demanding a probe into the use of a government informant to gain information on the Trump campaign before the 2016 election.
He’s just “cleaning everything up,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“No, no. We’re not undercutting, We’re cleaning everything up,” trump said. “This was a terrible situation. What we’re doing is we’re cleaning everything up. It’s so important. What I’m doing is a service to this country.”
Trump: "We're not undercutting" the DOJ with IG probe request. "We're cleaning everything up." pic.twitter.com/OOZ4QNFfVa
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 23, 2018
Since The New York Times first reported last week that an informant met with members of Trump’s campaign, Trump has seized on the news as evidence of a broader bias against him within the FBI and DOJ and has relentlessly called the informant a “spy,” deeming the whole ordeal “spygate” on Wednesday.
SPYGATE could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23, 2018
In reality, the informant reportedly spoke with two Trump campaign officials — Carter Page and George Papadopoulos — as a facet for quietly probing Russian interference in the election without compromising the vote.
Trump tweeted Sunday a “demand” for a probe into whether the FBI’s hiring of an informant to meet with Trump officials was politically motivated. The Justice Department then asked the inspector general to look into it.