Trump Questions FBI Integrity, James Comey And Agents Association Hit Back

President Donald Trump in a series of tweets on Sunday lashed out at Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and maintained his stance that he did not ask former director James Comey to drop the investigation on one of his top aides, Micheal Flynn.

In a Twitter outburst, Trump said the FBI’s reputation was “in tatters” but assured he will bring it “back to greatness.”

Trump’s tweets also came at the time of Flynn’s guilty plea. Flynn on Friday pleaded guilty and as part of the plea deal admitted a senior member of the Trump transition team directed him to make contact with Russian officials in December 2016. However, the government did not reveal the identity of the senior transition official.

Check out the tweets by POTUS here.

In his tweets, Trump also took a dig at the former director, who replied to the POTUS saying the FBI is strong and honest and has always have been independent.

Check out his tweet here.

Apart from Comey, Thomas O’Connor, president of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents Association (FBIAA), also reacted to Trump’s outburst and issued a statement saying every single day numerous agents risk their lives to protect the people of America “from national security and criminal threats.” He added the FBI is the premier law enforcement agency in the world and anyone suggesting otherwise is wrong.

Check out the tweet by FBIAA here.

Eric Holder, former President Barack Obama’s attorney general, also hit back at Trump and refused to let the president’s comments slide. Holder denied the FBI’s reputation is in “tatters” and claimed there is more integrity in the agency than there is in the White House. Holder stressed in a tweet the FBI consists of dedicated men and women.

Former attorney general Sally Yates lashed out at Trump on her official Twitter account. She tweeted the only thing in tatters is the president’s respect for the law and that the dedicated men and woman at the FBI deserved better.

The president’s tweets were in response to a report that claimed a veteran FBI counterintelligence agent was eliminated from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, which was investigating Russian election meddling because of anti-Trump text messages. Reports stated the agent was removed during the summer after an exchange of text messages, potentially viewed as anti-Trump, was discovered, according to a person familiar with the matter, who chose to remain anonymous.

It was after Trump’s firing of Comey that Mueller was appointed special counsel.

Comey, who was dismissed in May, was investigating allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 United States election and had told the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee in June he believed his dismissal was related to the Russia probe. He also said Trump asked him to end the investigation of Flynn, International Business Times reported.

According to latest developments, reports claimed that Trump’s attorney, John Dowd in an interview accepted POTUS’s tweets were drafted by him and that putting them together had been a “mistake.”

"I'll take responsibility," he said.