President Trump on Wednesday lauded the Justice Department’s decision to launch an internal investigation into surveillance of his 2016 campaign, claiming his administration is “cleaning everything up” at the agency.
“We’re cleaning everything up. This was a terrible situation. What we’re doing is we’re cleaning everything up. It’s so important,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“What I am doing is a service to this country,” he said, adding that he performed another “great service” when he fired former FBI Director James Comey last May.
Trump demanded over the weekend that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein allow the Justice Department’s inspector general to look into whether there were any irregularities in surveillance tactics that were used on Trump associates during the 2016 election.
The request came after news broke that an FBI informant met with at least three Trump campaign aides on multiple occasions, a revelation Trump has since compared to “politically motivated” spying.
Several Republican lawmakers have criticized Justice Department officials over the agency’s handling of the Russia probe and the Hillary Clinton email investigation, with some suggesting the agency is too tarnished at this point to investigate itself.
Trump cast his request for the internal investigation as something that could help improve the Justice Department’s reputation, dismissing concerns that the move is “undercutting” the agency.
