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Ex-FBI special agent: GOP senator should apologize for pushing FBI ‘conspiracy’ theory

by Morgan Gstalter - 01/26/18 9:34 AM ET

Fmr FBI @Ali_H_Soufan demanding Sen Ron Johnson go on TV and apologize for peddling a “secret society” conspiracy theory. WATCH: https://t.co/7jxFnFBA4Z

— Brooke Baldwin (@BrookeBCNN) January 25, 2018

A former top FBI agent is demanding that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) go on national television and apologize for peddling a “conspiracy” theory of bias against President Trump among FBI officials.

“This is not funny. This is a U.S. senator and he is claiming that there’s a secret society within the FBI to take down the president of the United States,” Ali Soufan told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin on Thursday.

“He went on television, telling that to the American people. He needs to go on TV again and he needs to apologize.”

Johnson stoked concerns during a Fox News interview Tuesday night when he said he had been working with a whistleblower who told him about “off-site” meetings of FBI and Justice Department officials, linking them to a text message between former FBI agents referring to a “secret society”.

Johnson appeared to walk back his claims later in the week, saying he has not been able to confirm the off-site meetings and noting that the “secret society” reference may have been a joke. {mosads}

“This is pathetic,” Soufan told CNN. “It can be comic if it’s not tragically dangerous.”

Soufan, who worked at the agency for 10 years as a supervisory special agent, said it’s dangerous for lawmakers to peddle theories about law enforcement officials.

“He’s a demagogue,” Soufan said of Johnson. “He’s a partisan. He’s putting partisanship above country. And that is very, very dangerous.”

GOP lawmakers have highlighted the phrase “secret society” in text messages between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page right after the 2016 election. Republicans and Democrats alike have said they don’t know what the phrase means and that it could have been an inside joke.

Some GOP officials have suggested that FBI and Justice Department employees were part of a covert “deep state” effort to undermine Trump.

Strzok was removed last year from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into allegations of Russian collusion in the Trump campaign after the text messages were uncovered.