August 25, 2018

President Trump Just Issued a Disturbing Threat Against the FBI

“At some point I may have to get involved!”

Alex Brandon/AP

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Donald Trump, still reeling from a week of legal blows to his former campaign chair and lawyer, who has implicated the president in allegations of campaign finance violations, lashed out on Saturday at the Justice Department, returning to one of his favorite topics: Hillary Clinton’s emails. But his early Saturday morning missives also included a disturbing threat, that at some point he “may have to get involved” in the investigation.

The tweets come days after Trump’s onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of eight counts of financial crimes, and after his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to bank, tax, and campaign finance charges. Cohen said Trump had “directed” him to break campaign finance rules for the “principal purpose of influencing [the] election.”

For months, Trump has described special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election as a “witch hunt” and accused the FBI of failing to properly look into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was working as secretary of state. The case against Cohen began, in part, on a referral from the special counsel. 

On Saturday, Trump also continued to escalate his feud with Attorney General Jeff Sessions. After recent attacks on the attorney general for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, Sessions on Friday defended his decision. “While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations,” he said. 

The fight between Trump and Sessions has led to speculation by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and others that the president may be weighing firing his attorney general after the November midterm elections.

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PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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