It’s the day after Christmas but President Donald Trump is back to work, taking to Twitter to assert his agreement with “Fox and Friends” that the FBI is “tainted” for their possible role in the creation of the Steele dossier that has alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia:
WOW, @foxandfrlends “Dossier is bogus. Clinton Campaign, DNC funded Dossier. FBI CANNOT (after all of this time) VERIFY CLAIMS IN DOSSIER OF RUSSIA/TRUMP COLLUSION. FBI TAINTED.” And they used this Crooked Hillary pile of garbage as the basis for going after the Trump Campaign!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2017
Meanwhile, Trump’s former campaign manager, Michael Caputo, appeared on CNN’s “New Day” Tuesday morning praising tweets like these and calling them an “insurance policy” against political bias within the agency against the Trump administration:
“The president’s tweets are an insurance policy for the American people to make sure that its leading law enforcement organization remains unbiased,” Caputo said on CNN’s “New Day.”
Trump has scrutinized former FBI Director James Comey, current Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe over the last week for their part in the Bureau’s investigation of possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, which the president says has been tainted by anti-Trump sentiments.
Caputo defended the tweets against the officials, saying the president was “not going after them personally, he’s going after them professionally,” he told host Alisyn Camerota.
Former Trump Campaign Manager Michael Caputo: The President's tweets are an insurance policy for the American people to make sure its leading law enforcement organization [the FBI] remains unbiased https://t.co/d5zTrYa4ep
— New Day (@NewDay) December 26, 2017
The term “insurance policy” is a direct allusion to the text exchange between FBI agent Peter Strzok and his girlfriend, in which Strzok referred to needing an “insurance policy” against Trump’s election. That insurance policy? Possibly the Steele dossier.
The dossier, which attempts to directly link the Trump campaign to Russian operatives thereby lending credence to the idea that Trump and company “colluded” with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, has been the subject of suspicion because much of its contents have failed to be corroborated, and some appear to have been fabricated. Former FBI Directer Comey has acknowledged that the dossier contents were “salacious and unverified.”
Trump has used Twitter to criticize former FBI Director James Comey and, more recently, current Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe following their testimony to an oversight committee on the agency’s handling of the investigation into Russian collusion and the FBI’s role in possibly help to create the Steele dossier.
The most recent criticism came over McCabe’s wife’s decision to accept thousands of dollars in campaign funding from a Hillary Clinton-aligned PAC for her try at a Virginia State Senate in 2015.
“This is politics as usual,” Caputo continued. “I know that’s disappointing for some people, but the president is highlighting this bias to the American people for good reason. If there’s going to be an investigation it must be unbiased,” he said.
McCabe announced his decision to retire two days before Christmas.
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