News

Trump Will Officially Demand The Justice Department Look Into Those FBI Informant Rumors

by Caitlin Cruz
Alex Wong/Getty Images News/Getty Images

After a morning of tweeting about the Robert Mueller probe, President Donald Trump demanded an investigation into any alleged infiltration or surveillance into the Trump campaign by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The tweet, posted on Sunday, reads:

I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!

It's unclear what an official call for an investigation will look like, or who would lead it. The president's tweets were a part of a series throughout Sunday that criticized the "Witch Hunt" investigation, The New York Times, and Hillary Clinton's emails.

The Justice Department hasn't issued any reaction to the tweets or his online demand for an investigation.

On Friday, President Trump accused the FBI of using a spy to infiltrate his side of the 2016 presidential campaign, according to The New York Times. The paper also reported there is no evidence to the president's claims. The president tweeted, "indeed at least one FBI representative implanted, for political purposes, into my campaign for president" on Friday.

In fact, according to The Times, an informant was sent by the FBI to talk to two campaign advisers — George Papadopoulos and Carter Page. The FBI had reportedly received evidence that Papadopoulos and Page were possibly linked to Russia. NBC News reported that an American professor in Britain did meet with both men, but the outlet could not confirm if the professor was the informant.

When asked about such an informant, however, Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer, told CNN that the team doesn't know if there was an informant. "I don’t know for sure, nor does the president, if there really was one,” Giuliani said on air, as reported by the Associated Press.

On Saturday, the president tweeted that any infiltration of other campaigns would be a "really big deal":

If the FBI or DOJ was infiltrating a campaign for the benefit of another campaign, that is a really big deal. Only the release or review of documents that the House Intelligence Committee (also, Senate Judiciary) is asking for can give the conclusive answers. Drain the Swamp!

The New York Times reported Sunday that Giuliani said the special counsel's investigation into potential obstruction in its Russian inquiry will be concluded by Sept. 1. Giuliani told The Times that the special counsel's office shared its timeline with the president's legal team about two weeks ago. The special counsel's office declined to comment to the newspaper.

The conclusion of the obstruction arm of the Russian inquiry would not mean the conclusion of the special counsel's work, according to The Times. The question of if President Trump obstructed the Russian investigation is only one part of Mueller's work into investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 president election.

Andrew Burton/Getty Images News/Getty Images

The Russia inquiry reached its first anniversary on May 16. According to The Washington Post, Mueller's team has charged 19 people, and three companies. There have been five guilty pleas.

Three of those guilty pleas come from former Trump campaign operatives, according to The Washington Post: former national security adviser Michael Flynn, deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, and Papadopoulos.

On May 17, President Trump offered his congratulations to the inquiry, if not somewhat sarcastically. Trump tweeted: "Congratulations America, we are now into the second year of the greatest Witch Hunt in American History...and there is still No Collusion and No Obstruction. The only Collusion was that done by Democrats who were unable to win an Election despite the spending of far more money!"