President Trump condemned the FBI employees implicated in the findings of the Justice Department inspector general report on the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.
Michael Horowitz’s report included details on the conduct of some individual employees at the bureau while it was investigating Trump, including one agent who forged documents. Horowitz found 17 documented mistakes made by agents in the process of obtaining a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to investigate a member of Trump’s campaign but concluded that political bias did not influence the investigation.
During a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, Trump slammed FBI officials, including former agent Peter Strzok and ex-lawyer Lisa Page. He claimed agents that demonstrated bias were the reason some of his associates were arrested following the investigation and called the agents “scum.”
“The FBI also sent multiple undercover human spies to surveil and record people associated with our campaign. Look how they’ve hurt people. They’ve destroyed the lives of people that were great people. That are still great people,” Trump said. “Their lives have been destroyed by scum. Okay? By scum.”
Trump noted that the FBI employee who forged the email had been referred for a criminal investigation to see if he misled the courts when the FBI worked to obtain FISA warrants. The president added that he is more optimistic about the findings from U.S. Attorney John Durham’s report on the origins of the Russia investigation than he was for Horowitz’s report.
“I look forward to [John] Durham’s report. That’s the one I look forward to. And this [Horowitz] report was great by the I.G., especially since he was appointed by President Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump said, as the crowd booed. “Considering that fact, it was great.”
Trump, 73, has been a critic of the intelligence community since taking office and has been especially skeptical of those appointed by his predecessor.
