President Trump on Sunday lashed out at FBI leadership over the origins of the investigation into Russia’s election interference, calling investigators who led the probe “human scum.”
Trump made the remarks during a White House briefing after being asked about a pair of his former associates who were sentenced to prison following charges stemming from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Asked whether he’d pardon Paul Manafort and Roger Stone so they wouldn’t be exposed to the coronavirus while in prison, Trump said, “You’ll find out.”
Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, was sentenced to prison last year following crimes uncovered by Mueller’s investigation. Stone, a longtime adviser to Trump, was sentenced to three years in prison in February for lying to Congress and witness tampering.
“I’m not going to say,” Trump said on Sunday before launching into a tirade against the FBI and the leadership who spawned the investigation into Russian interference. Mueller led the probe after Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey in 2017.
Trump claimed he was a fan of the FBI, but then said that its leaders were “scum.”
He also criticized the FBI for its treatment of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators during the Russia investigation. He claimed that what the FBI did to Flynn was a “disgrace” considering the figure’s military service.
“These were crooked people,” he said.
“You know what they are, though, they’re scum, they’re human scum,” he said.
Mueller’s probe concluded it could not establish there was a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow to influence the 2016 election. Though the report noted that Mueller was unable to “conclusively determine” that no criminal conduct occurred with regard to obstruction of justice.
In a review of the probe’s origins, the inspector general for the Department of Justice (DOJ) found that the FBI did not commit any wrongdoing while opening the investigation. But the review found the agency made errors in its surveillance efforts.
In late March, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said he found additional errors in the FBI’s surveillance warrant application process.
The findings have led Trump and his allies to argue that the probe into Trump’s campaign and Russia’s election interference was fraudulent from the start.
Trump repeatedly called the probe a “witch hunt” during Mueller’s nearly two years as special counsel.