Trump meets with Rosenstein, FBI director
President Trump will meet with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday afternoon amid a burgeoning dispute with federal law enforcement over the Russia probe.
A White House official called the meeting “routine” but also said that Trump’s demand for a federal investigation into whether the FBI improperly infiltrated his campaign will likely come up.
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Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats will also attend the meeting at the White House, which was first reported by ABC News.
The outcome could determine whether Trump decides to trigger a full-blown crisis with the Justice Department (DOJ) over his frustration with the Russia probe.
Trump ratcheted up the pressure on the law enforcement agency Sunday when he made his demand for a probe into allegations that there was an informant inside his 2016 campaign, an extraordinary request that few past presidents have made.
The DOJ moved to defuse tensions late Sunday when it asked the agency’s inspector general (IG) to look into whether there was improper surveillance of the Trump campaign.
But it remains unclear whether that will be enough to satisfy the president, who has previously dismissed the Justice Department’s internal watchdog as an “Obama guy” and called it “DISGRACEFUL” he was allowed to look into whether a former Trump campaign associate was improperly surveilled.
Trump’s conservative allies in Congress said the IG probe does not go far enough.
“Rod Rosenstein knows exactly what happened and what is in the documents requested by Congress,” tweeted House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). “Either the matter warranted investigation long ago and he did nothing, or he’s seen the facts and believes nothing is wrong. His belated referral to the IG is not news… it is a ruse.”
Trump issued his demand after a days-long Twitter tirade against the Russia investigation, which he has long dismissed as a “witch hunt.”
“I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes – and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!” he tweeted Sunday night.
The president’s frustration was fueled by news reports that an intelligence source met with Trump advisers on three occasions during the 2016 campaign. The source, however, was not embedded in the campaign as Trump and his allies have claimed.
Minutes before the meeting, the Trump campaign sent out a fundraising appeal to supporters citing the reports, calling it “WORSE than Watergate.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has issued a subpoena to the DOJ for all documents related to the intelligence source. The department has rejected the request, saying it could expose the source’s identity and put the source in danger.
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