Trump attacks the FBI and Justice Department as the war over the memo and Russia investigation heat up
President Donald Trump attacked the leadership of the FBI and Justice Department on Twitter on Friday morning.
He said they had "politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats."
Trump has been attacking key figures in investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Russia or whether he obstructed justice during the first investigation.
President Donald Trump attacked the leadership of the FBI and Justice Department on Twitter on Friday morning, saying they had "politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats."
"The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!" Trump tweeted.
The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2018
Trump's attack on the FBI investigators and Justice Department's leader, whom he appointed, comes after a week filled of heated debate over the release of a memo that Republicans say indicates an FBI bias against Trump.
In a later tweet, Trump quoted Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative organization, saying: "You had Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party try to hide the fact that they gave money to GPS Fusion to create a Dossier which was used by their allies in the Obama Administration to convince a Court misleadingly, by all accounts, to spy on the Trump Team."
“You had Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party try to hide the fact that they gave money to GPS Fusion to create a Dossier which was used by their allies in the Obama Administration to convince a Court misleadingly, by all accounts, to spy on the Trump Team.” Tom Fitton, JW
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2018
The memo allegedly suggests that FBI and DOJ officials relied on politically motivated sources, namely the infamous dossier that both Republicans and Democrats funded at different times as opposition research into Trump to justify spying on members of Trump's team.
Earlier this week, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee voted to release the memo to the public despite strong opposition from Democrats and Justice Department officials.
On Wednesday, the FBI made a rare public statement warning against the memo's release, citing "grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."
Arguably, Trump has done as much to politicize bipartisan investigations into Russia's meddling in the US's 2016 presidential election as anyone. Many experts dismiss recent attempts to open investigations into the FBI's handling of Hillary Clinton's use of personal servers for government business as a partisan attempt to discredit the FBI.
But while Trump is widely seen as trying to smear key figures in investigations against him, special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign appears to be heating up.
Investigators now have evidence that on three separate occasions, Trump tried to pin down the loyalty of a top law-enforcement official looking into his campaign, possibly implicating Trump in an obstruction of justice case.
