President
Trump said Saturday that a memo on
FBI surveillance abuses released by
House Republicans “totally vindicates” him in the investigation into Russian meddling and collusion in the 2016 election.
“This memo totally vindicates ‘
Trump‘ in probe,” the president tweeted. “But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on.”
The president said there was “no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead).”
“
This is an American disgrace!”
Mr. Trump said.
Special counsel Robert Mueller reportedly is focusing on possible obstruction of justice, including
Mr. Trump’s firing last year of
FBI Director James B. Comey.
The president gave his views on the matter a day after Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released the four-page memo detailing the
FBI’s reliance on a partisan, anti-
Trump dossier funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign to apply for surveillance warrants against a
Trump campaign aide in 2016.
Top
FBI and Justice Department officials didn’t fully inform the secret court that authorizes surveillance about the partisan connections of the dossier, the memo said.
Nearly a year ago,
Mr. Trump was the target of ridicule on the left for accusing former President Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower during the presidential campaign.
“Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” the president said in March 2017.
The Republicans’ memo also confirmed, however, that the
FBI’s Russia probe had been started before the surveillance of
Trump campaign aide Carter Page. It shows that the
FBI opened the investigation in July 2016 to examine contacts between
Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and Russian representatives.
After the memo was released Friday,
Mr. Trump told reporters that the
FBI’s conduct was a “disgrace.” He refused to say whether he had confidence in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who signed at least one of the surveillance applications and later appointed Mr. Mueller to investigate the Russia allegations.
Mr. Comey said of the memo on Twitter Friday, “That’s it? Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the
House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ &
FBI must keep doing their jobs.”