Trump ‘was RIGHT to slam Russia probe after controversial Obama briefing’, mystery FBI employee said in text messages
DONALD Trump “was right” to blast a probe into Moscow’s election meddling after a controversial Barack Obama briefing, a mystery FBI employee said.
Bombshell text messages between staffers appear to back up Trump’s claim that the “Russian hacking” briefing was delayed so his opponents could “build a case”.
The text messages between the FBI employees related to a probe over whether Moscow tried to influence the presidential race on Trump’s behalf by hacking and leaking damaging info on Democrat Hillary Clinton.
They were made on January 5, 2017 during Obama’s last days as president and following claims by Trump that a briefing on the alleged hacking was being delayed so “more time needed to build a case”.
The texts were among several that lawyers for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn said were turned over to them.
During the conversation on the FBI’s “Lync” messaging system, the mystery employees discussed Obama’s briefing.
In this, one FBI worker asked: “What’s the word on how O’s briefing went.
Another wrote: “Don’t know but people here are scrambling for info to support certain things and it’s a madhouse.
The next message was “jesus,” followed by an apparent reference to a Trump tweet from two days earlier.
“Trump was right. still not put together….why do we do this to ourselves. what is wrong with these people,” an FBI employee wrote.
Two days before this Trump tweeted: “The ‘Intelligence’ briefing on so-called ‘Russian hacking’ was delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange!”
The identities of the FBI employees involved in the conversation are blacked out and it is not clear what their roles were in the investigation.
But five days later, court papers say, the “same employees” texted again, with one revealed how “we all went and purchased professional liability insurance”.
Another asked: “All the analysts too?
The other replied: “yep”.
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Flynn’s lawyers included the conversations in a filing to support dismissal of the case against the retired US Army general.
Back in 2017 he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
In the filing, Flynn’s lawyers wrote:“This evidence shows outrageous, deliberate misconduct by the FBI and [the Department of Justice] — playing games with the life of a national hero.”The Justice Department in May agreed to drop its prosecution of Flynn because of “newly discovered and disclosed information” obtained by the defense.
But presiding Judge Emmett Sullivan declined to dismiss the case and appointed former Brooklyn federal Judge John Gleeson to offer advice as a “friend of the court”.
In a filing earlier this month, Gleeson said the Justice Department’s decision “rests on pure pretext” and “reflects a corrupt and politically motivated favor unworthy of our justice system.”
Oral arguments on the matter will be made on Tuesday morning, hours before the first debate between Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden.