Trump says the FBI became 'a tool of anti-Trump political actors' in 2016

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

published 4 February 2018

President Trump followed up his initial claim that the Nunes memo "totally vindicates 'Trump'" in the Russia probe with additional tweets Saturday evening accusing the FBI and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (also called the FISA court) of being used to manipulate the 2016 election. Quoting a Wall Street Journal editorial, Trump aimed his worst ire at the FBI:

The editorial's argument rests on the memo's revelation that the FBI acquired FISA permission to spy on Trump campaign aide Carter Page based significantly on the Steele dossier, whose creation was partially funded by a Clinton campaign lawyer, without telling the court the source of the information. Thus, the Journal says, the "FBI in essence let itself and the FISA court be used to promote a major theme of the Clinton campaign."

However, the Journal rejected Trump's claim that the memo proves his campaign innocent of Russia-related allegations under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. "We doubt Mr. Mueller will be deterred by any of this," the editorial says. "The question of FISA abuse is independent of Mr. Mueller’s work, and one that Congress takes up amid a larger debate about surveillance and national security."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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