August 11, 2018

Trump Threatens to Interfere With FBI

“I may have to get involved.”

Thomas O'Neill/NurPhoto via ZUMA

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Donald Trump warned Saturday morning that he “may have to get involved” in FBI business. In a pair of tweets, the president complained that the bureau has not turned over to the conservative group Judicial Watch text messages sent by former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. Trump also warned the FBI not to “destroy” any such messages:

Earlier this year, Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe, who had been involved in the FBI investigations into Hillary Clinton’s email server and the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. The firing followed months of Trump attacks on McCabe. 

Saturday’s Twitter tirade was not the first time Trump threatened to interfere in politically sensitive law enforcement matters. In April, the president suggested on Fox & Friends that he might decide to intervene in the ongoing Russia probe.

Last week, Trump sparked a media firestorm and accusations of obstruction of justice when he publicly appealed to Sessions to end the the Russia investigation. In response, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders downplayed the president’s tweet, saying it was merely an expression of his opinion and not a formal directive to Sessions.

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In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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