9/19/2018

FBI/JAMES COMEY/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESETIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump said Tuesday [9-18-18] that his decision to declassify documents related to the Justice Department’s Russia probe was ‘a great service to the country’ and expressed regret that he had not fired former FBI Director James Comey earlier. In an interview with The Hill, Trump said that he believes his crusade against the FBI, whose past leadership he has criticized as biased against him, will ultimately reveal corruption inside the bureau. Uncovering that corruption, the president said, could be one of the ‘crowning achievements’ of his administration…The president’s comments came one day after he ordered the release of a tranche of Comey’s text messages and declassified 20 pages of a surveillance application that targeted former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Allies of the president have suggested that the released information will show evidence of the president’s claims, that the ongoing Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller is a ‘hoax’ and that a conspiracy existed inside the Justice Department to undercut Trump’s presidency.”

Rebecca Morin, “Trump: I should have fired Comey ‘the day I won the primaries’,” Politico, September 19, 2018 8:42 am