Donald Trump has called on the Department of Justice to look into claims that the FBI “infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for political purposes” at the request of the Obama administration.
His demands result from media reports that “federal authorities used an informant to gather information on Trump campaign officials”, says The Independent.
According to The New York Times, FBI agents sent an informant to speak to two Trump campaign advisers “after they received evidence that the pair had suspicious contacts linked to Russia during the campaign”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The Wall Street Journal identified the informant as “Stefan Halper, an American who was a foreign policy scholar at the University of Cambridge until 2015”.
Trump’s call for an investigation came in a series of tweets taking aim at special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, in which he claimed the investigation had overstepped its bounds.
The outburst followed reports that in August 2016 the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, had met an envoy representing the crown princes of United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The meetings “were an indication other countries besides Russia may have offered help to Trump’s presidential campaign”, says the ABC.
-
How clean-air efforts may have exacerbated global warmingUnder the Radar Air pollution artificially cooled the Earth, ‘masking’ extent of temperature increase
-
September 14 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include RFK Jr on the hook, the destruction of discourse, and more
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-warTalking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-war
Talking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
Calls for both calm and consequences follow Kirk killingTALKING POINTS The suspected assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk has some public figures pleading for restraint, while others agitate for violent reprisals
-
Why does Donald Trump keep showing up at major sporting events?Today's Big Question Trump has appeared at the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500 and other events
-
‘Democracy is under threat globally’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Former top FBI agents sue, claiming Trump purgeSpeed Read The agents alleged they were targeted by a “campaign of retribution”
-
Why does Trump keep interfering in the NYC mayoral race?Today's Big Question The president has seemingly taken an outsized interest in his hometown elections, but are his efforts to block Zohran Mamdani about political expediency or something deeper?
-
Judge lets Cook stay at Fed while appealing ousterSpeed Read Trump had attempted to fire Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to TrumpSpeed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
