2016 ELECTION/FBI/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/MICHAEL FLYNN/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “On his way to Quantico, Va., to speak at the FBI’s National Academy, President Trump stopped to tell reporters, ‘It’s a shame what’s happened with the FBI,’ and ‘you have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it.’
Trump asserted that ‘we’re going to rebuild the FBI’ after what he described as ‘really, really disgraceful’ documents, presumably the text messages that the Justice Department provided Congress this week in which a senior agent described candidate Trump as an ‘idiot’ and made other political remarks in the course of the presidential campaign.
Trump also opened the door to pardoning Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI last month…
Flynn has not been sentenced and appears to be a cooperating witness as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Trump called the investigation a ‘Democrat hoax,’ ‘an excuse for losing the election’ and claimed again ‘there is absolutely no collusion.’
The remarks carried new potency given Trump’s audience Friday morning: the latest graduating class at the FBI’s National Academy for law enforcement managers.
Yet, the president made only passing references to the FBI in his remarks before law-enforcement officers from around the country and internationally, who graduated from a program at the FBI’s prestigious training center.”
-Carrie Johnson, “Before Talking At FBI, Trump Slams The Agency, Opens Door To Pardoning Flynn,” NPR, Dec. 15, 2017 05:00am