Categories for FBI
27,269. 8/7/2019
DEMS/FBI/RACISM/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The issue of white extremism is taking on a new and important role in the American political conversation, and it is separate from the problem of guns and the people who will use them to mow down their fellow citizens. The two issues mix together after mass shootings carried out by racially motivated killers. But they are often distinct. There was apparently no racial motivation for the gunman in Dayton, Ohio, who carried out his massacre hours after a gunman in El Paso, Texas, posted a racist screed and then shot up a Walmart. And there were no guns involved in the violence surrounding a 2017 gathering of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia. The issue of gun violence has divided Americans along political lines for decades and will continue to do so, but white extremism is jumping to the forefront of the political conversation in a new way: Democrats say it’s a crisis that needs to be addressed immediately while President Donald Trump and some pundits appear to believe there is no problem at all.”
–Zachary B. Wolf, “Democrats and the FBI say white extremism is a huge problem. Trump disagrees.,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, August 7, 2019 7:15 pm
27,216. 8/6/2019
E-MAILS/FBI/HILLARY CLINTON/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Peter Strzok, the F.B.I. senior counterintelligence agent in the Hillary Clinton email and Russia investigations who made inflammatory comments about President Trump in text messages, sued the Justice Department and the F.B.I. on Tuesday [8-6-19] for firing him. The F.B.I. said last summer that it had terminated Mr. Strzok for violating bureau policies, but he said in his lawsuit that he was fired because of political pressure from Mr. Trump, who has made a frequent target of Mr. Strzok in his public statements…The Justice Department declined to comment, and the F.B.I. said it does not comment on pending litigation. Mr. Strzok, who is seeking reinstatement to his job and a monetary award, was removed from the Russia investigation after it emerged that he had sent disparaging text messages about Mr. Trump to Lisa Page, an F.B.I. lawyer at the time who also worked on both investigations.”
-Katie Benner, “Peter Strzok Sues F.B.I., Saying His Firing Was Politically Motivated,” the New York Times online, August 6, 2019
27,177. 8/4/2019
FBI/MASS SHOOTINGS/OHIO/TEXAS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The FBI, local and state law enforcement are working together in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio. Information is rapidly being accumulated in Dayton. Much has already be learned in El Paso. Law enforcement was very rapid in both instances. Updates will be given throughout the day!”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, August 4, 2019 7:13 am
27,096. 8/1/2019
FBI/JAMES COMEY/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Justice Department declined to prosecute the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey after determining that two memos he wrote about his interactions with President Trump contained classified information and examining whether he mishandled the documents, according to people familiar with the matter. The F.B.I. upgraded the memos to confidential — the lowest level in the government’s system of classifying information — shortly after the president fired Mr. Comey in May 2017, the people said. Mr. Comey had kept several memos at his home and shared one with a friend when he thought they contained only routine information, but the determination that some memos included classified material prompted the investigation into whether he mishandled them. Prosecutors quickly determined the case did not warrant charges, the people said. It is not clear which memos spurred the inquiry, but the upgrade to confidential dealt with foreign relations, a person familiar with the classification review said.”
–Adam Goldman and Katie Benner, “Justice Dept. Declined to Prosecute Comey Over Memos About Trump,” The New York Times online, August 1, 2019
26,866. 7/24/2019
FBI/ROBERT MUELLER/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “RT @Jim_Jordan: Why didn’t Mueller charge Joseph Mifsud for lying to the FBI? https://t.co/34E6TSigcM”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 24, 2019 12:17 pm
26,859. 7/24/2019
FBI/ROBERT MUELLER/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “It has been reported that Robert Mueller is saying that he did not apply and interview for the job of FBI Director (and get turned down) the day before he was wrongfully appointed Special Counsel. Hope he doesn’t say that under oath in that we have numerous witnesses to the…”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 24, 2019 7:18 am
26,855. 7/24/2019
FBI/ROBERT MUELLER/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “It has been reported that Robert Mueller is saying that he did not apply and interview for the job of FBI Director (and get turned down) the day before he was wrongfully appointed Special Counsel. Hope he doesn’t say that under oath in the we have numerous witnesses to the…..”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 24, 2019 6:53 am
26,554. 7/13/2019
FBI/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/LAWSUIT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “RT @JudicialWatch: JW announced that it filed a FOIA lawsuit against the DOJ for records of communications between the FBI & former FBI Dep…”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 13, 2019 7:11 am
26,552. 7/13/2019
FBI/HILLARY CLINTON/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Andy McCabe is a major sleazebag. Among many other things, he took massive amounts of money from Crooked Hillary reps, for wife’s campaign, while Hillary was under ‘investigation’ by FBI! https://t.co/bHweiBBj7z”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 13, 2019 6:56 am
26,402. 7/9/2019
FBI/MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “‘FBI’s Christopher Steele (FAKE) Story Falls Apart: False Intel & Media Contacts Were Flagged Before FISA.’ John Solomon, The Hill. @seanhannity”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, July 9, 2019 10:30 pm
26,388. 7/9/2019
BRITAIN/FBI/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Christopher Steele, the former British spy behind the infamous ‘dossier’ on President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, was interviewed for 16 hours in June by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog, according to two people familiar with the matter. The interview is part of an ongoing investigation that the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, has been conducting for the past year. Specifically, Horowitz has been examining the FBI’s efforts to surveil a one-time Trump campaign adviser based in part on information from Steele, an ex-British MI6 agent who had worked with the bureau as a confidential source since 2010. Horowitz’s team has been intensely focused on gauging Steele’s credibility as a source for the bureau. But Steele was initially reluctant to speak with the American investigators because of the potential impropriety of his involvement in an internal DOJ probe as a foreign national and retired British intelligence agent. Steele’s allies have also repeatedly noted that the dossier was not the original basis for the FBI’s probe into Trump and Russia.”
–Natasha Bertrand, “Trump dossier author Steele gets 16-hour DOJ grilling,” Politico, July 9, 2019 12:19 pm
26,236. 7/3/2019
CONGRESS/DEMS/FBI/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Justice Department’s top watchdog will review why the F.B.I. scuttled plans to erect a new headquarters in suburban Washington and instead chose to replace the J. Edgar Hoover Building on its current site near the White House, he wrote to lawmakers this week. The F.B.I.’s abrupt change of plans has fueled concerns among Democrats in Congress that President Trump personally intervened to make sure that the land was not redeveloped with a project that would compete with his company’s nearby hotel. In May, Democrats asked the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, to examine the decision…The F.B.I. had been moving toward relocating to a campus in suburban Maryland or Virginia while also planning to move potentially thousands of bureau employees to Huntsville, Ala., where the F.B.I. already has a sizable presence and space for more people. But shortly after taking power, the Trump administration killed the plan to move to the suburbs.”
–Adam Goldman, “Justice Dept. Watchdog to Review Shift in Plan to Move F.B.I. Headquarters,” The New York Times online, July 3, 2019
26,066. 6/26/2019
2016 CAMPAIGN/CONGRESS/FBI/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/ROBERT MUELLER/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Wednesday [6-26-19] accused former special counsel Robert Mueller of committing a crime, without providing evidence, by deleting certain text messages sent between two former FBI officials who had been critical of Trump during his 2016 campaign. ‘[Mueller] terminated all the stuff between Strzok and Page,’ Trump told Maria Bartiromo, the host of Fox Business Network’s ‘Mornings with Maria,’ in a wide-ranging phone interview. ‘He terminated them. They’re gone. And that’s illegal. That’s a crime.’ Peter Strzok, who played a key role in the early stages of the Russia investigation, and fellow agent Lisa Page were romantically involved. Both were removed from the team after their affair surfaced through texts that came to light last year. The president bashed the pair in the interview Wednesday, calling them ‘stupid lovers.’ Trump’s comments were a roundabout reference to a report from the Justice Department’s inspector general last year that noted the iPhones used by Strzok and Page during their short stints on Mueller’s staff had been reset to factory settings, erasing the messages they contained.”
–Sarah Cammarata, “Trump slams Mueller ahead of testimony,” Politico, June 26, 2019 1:26 pm
25,913. 6/21/2019
FBI/MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Just revealed that the Failing and Desperate New York Times was feeding false stories about me, & those associated with me, to the FBI. This shows the kind of unprecedented hatred I have been putting up with for years with this Crooked newspaper. Is what they have done legal?…”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 21, 2019 7:19 am
25,749. 6/15/2019
FBI/INTELLIGENCE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “RT @TomFitton: 4 FBI witness interview reports are ‘missing’, along with the notes of a meeting between the FBI and the intelligence commun…”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 15, 2019 6:10 am
25,736. 6/14/2019
CAMPAIGN/FBI/INTELLIGENCE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump on Friday [6-14-19] appeared to backtrack somewhat on accepting campaign help from Russia or other foreign governments without necessarily telling the F.B.I., saying that he would certainly inform law enforcement authorities if he were approached. Under fire for saying earlier in the week that ‘I’d take it’ and scoffing at the notion that he should call authorities, Mr. Trump shifted by saying that while he would still look at incriminating information provided by a hostile foreign power about an election opponent he would ‘absolutely’ report such an encounter…He shot back angrily, however, at Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said on Thursday [6-13-19] that the president’s willingness to take foreign help to win an election demonstrated ‘that he does not know right from wrong’ and that ‘he’s been involved in a criminal cover-up’…The president also pushed back against criticism on another front, rejecting a recommendation by an independent agency that he fire his counselor, Kellyanne Conway, for violating federal law governing partisan politics in government.”
–Peter Baker, “Under Fire, Trump Says He Would ‘Absolutely’ Report Foreign Campaign Help,” The New York Times online, June 14, 2019
25,714. 6/14/2019
FBI/INTELLIGENCE/MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Friday [6-14-19] tried again to rectify the mess he made by saying he would likely accept dirt on a political opponent from a foreign entity, going on ‘Fox & Friends’ to clean up the comments. Trump insisted during a meandering 50-minute interview that ‘of course’ he would alert the FBI in such a case, but only after reviewing it first, ‘because if you don’t look at it, you won’t know it’s bad.’ The president has moved into damage control mode after an interview he gave with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos this week in which he scoffed at the notion of reporting revelations of damaging information from a foreign source to U.S. authorities…Remarkably, Trump also asserted on Friday that he didn’t foresee that issue arising. ‘I don’t think anybody would present me with anything because they know how much I love the country,’ he said, despite well-documented attempts by Russian nationals to do just that during the 2016 election.”
–Caitlin Oprysko, “Trump goes on Fox to clean up his foreign interference comments,” Politico, June 14, 2019 8:12 am
25,707. 6/13/2019
FBI/INTELLIGENCE/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump unloaded a baffling cargo of words Wednesday [6-12-19] after George Stephanopoulos asked him whether his son Donald Jr. should have contacted the FBI in June 2016 when a gang of Russians offered him ‘dirt’ on Hillary Clinton. Not necessarily, Trump implied in his first answer. Asked about his own FBI director’s assertion that of course a campaign should contact the FBI, Trump went full-tilt adamant…The exchange detonated on cable news and Twitter like the mother of all truth bombs. Trump kept hedging and twisting around—implying you might both take the dirt and call the FBI—flummoxing normally voluble critics like former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. ‘I’ve run out of adjectives,’ he said. ‘Unfit to be President’ is a gross understatement,’ tweeted former CIA Director John Brennan in equal exasperation. The leading Democratic candidates for president—Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and even the undercard candidates—torched him as a danger to the electoral process. What was he thinking? Was he thinking? In a normal politician, the moment might have been what used to be politely called a ‘gaffe,’ and more accurately called a career-ending self-own.”
–Jack Shafer, “Trump’s Mother of All Truth Bombs,” Politico, June 13, 2019
25,700. 6/13/2019
DEMS/FBI/INTELLIGENCE/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “For President Trump, the special counsel report was supposed to put Russia in his rearview mirror. But with some off-the-cuff remarks in the Oval Office, he has thrust his relationship with Moscow back into the debate over the future of his presidency. Mr. Trump’s defiant declaration that ‘I’d take it’ if Russia again offered campaign help and his assertion that he would not necessarily tell the F.B.I. about it drew bipartisan condemnation on Thursday [6-13-19], fueling calls for legislation requiring candidates to report such offers to the authorities and emboldening Democrats seeking his impeachment. The furor shifted the discussion in Washington away from obstruction of justice and back to the original issue that had dogged Mr. Trump since his election in 2016. Although the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, found no illegal conspiracy between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia, the president’s comments renewed questions about his willingness to profit from the aid of a hostile foreign power.”
–Peter Baker and Nicholas Fandos, “Trump Is Assailed for Saying He Would Take Campaign Help From Russia,” The New York Times online, June 13, 2019
25,699. 6/13/2019
ELECTION/FBI/INTELLIGENCE/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Nearly two years ago, FBI Director Chris Wray set up an office tasked solely with stopping the type of Russian interference efforts that infected the 2016 campaign. On Wednesday [6-12-19] night, President Donald Trump undercut the whole operation in a matter of seconds. In an ABC News interview, the president first proclaimed he would have no problem accepting dirt on his opponents from a foreign power, then said Wray was ‘wrong’ to suggest the FBI needs to know about such offers. The comments, according to interviews with nearly a dozen law enforcement veterans, have undone months of work, essentially inviting foreign spies to meddle with 2020 presidential campaigns and demoralizing the agents trying to stop them. And it has backed Wray into a corner, they added, putting him in a position where he might have to either publicly chastise the president and risk getting fired, or resign in protest. America’s enemies will see Trump’s comments and likely ‘come out of the woodwork like never before to try to influence the president,’ said longtime FBI veteran Frank Figliuzzi, who served as the bureau’s assistant director for counterintelligence until 2012.”
–Darren Samuelsohn and Natasha Bertrand, “Trump smashed months of FBI work to thwart election interference,” Politico, June 13, 2019 6:10 pm
25,694. 6/13/2019
DEMS/FBI/INTELLIGENCE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump and his senior advisers moved quickly on Thursday [6-13-19] to downplay and muddle his explosive assertion that he might not report to the FBI offers of election help from a foreign entity. As Trump’s Democratic opponents eviscerated him and one of his leading Republican supporters called his comments a ‘mistake,’ the president tried to recast his remarks, drawing a misleading comparison between accepting dirt from a foreign agent and his recent conversations with Queen Elizabeth and other world leaders…Every president regularly communicates with other heads of state. Accepting negative information from a foreign agent about a campaign opponent is a different matter, however. It is a crime for a campaign to solicit or accept something of value from a foreign entity, which some lawyers say could apply to information. Amid the firestorm, Trump and his top aides also turned to a familiar tactic: blaming the media. They argued that the president’s comments were taken out of context, insisting the reporting about his ABC News interview lacked nuance…However, the president’s full statement shows he was equivocal about whether he’d alert the FBI if he was presented with damaging information about his political opponents.”
–Andrew Restuccia, “Trump rushes into damage control after saying he’d accept foreign help in 2020,” Politico, June 13, 2019 2:50 pm
25,684. 6/13/2019
DEMS/FBI/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “….which he is a member. When @RepAdamSchiff took calls from another person, also very successfully purporting to be a Russian Operative, did he call the FBI, or even think to call the FBI? NO! The fact is that the phony Witch Hunt is a giant scam where Democrats,…”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 13, 2019 8:37 am
25,683. 6/13/2019
FBI/INTELLIGENCE/SENATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “When Senator @MarkWarnerVA spoke at length, and in great detail, about extremely negative information on me, with a talented entertainer purporting to be a Russian Operative, did he immediately call the FBI? NO, in fact he didn’t even tell the Senate Intelligence Committee of….”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 13, 2019 8:37 am
25,681. 6/13/2019
FBI/MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “….call the FBI about these calls and meetings? How ridiculous! I would never be trusted again. With that being said, my full answer is rarely played by the Fake News Media. They purposely leave out the part that matters.”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 13, 2019 8:23 am
25,680. 6/13/2019
FBI/MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “…..call the FBI about these calls and meetings? How ridiculous! I would never be trusted again. With that being said, my full answer is rarely played by the Fake News Media. They purposely leave out the part that matters.”
–Donald Trump, Twitter.com, June 13, 2019 7:59 am