May 23, 2018

Trump Ramps Up Attacks Against FBI and “Criminal Deep State”

He also debuted a new name for his latest unconfirmed rumor: “SPYGATE.”

Oliver Contreras/ZUMA

Fight disinformation. Get a daily recap of the facts that matter. Sign up for the free Mother Jones newsletter.

President Donald Trump continued to fume over unconfirmed rumors that an FBI informant spied on his presidential campaign for political purposes, tweeting angrily Wednesday morning that this could be “one of the biggest scandals in history.” 

Contrary to Trump’s recent claims, there is no evidence that an FBI spy “infiltrated” the 2016 campaign. This has led Democrats and several former intelligence officials to suggest that the president is intentionally misrepresenting reports that an FBI source made contact with several Trump advisers to look into increasing concerns over foreign influence in the 2016 election, specifically his campaign’s ties to Russia.

Still, on Wednesday, Trump tweeted the rumor—which he coined”SPYGATE”—which is being aggressively pushed by his allies and conservative networks, as truth. 

Former FBI Director James Comey blasted the president for his ongoing attacks against career agents before posing a moral question to Republicans.

On Thursday, Republican lawmakers will meet with intelligence officials to review classified information related to the FBI informant. No Democrats have been invited to the meeting.

HERE ARE THE FACTS:

Our fall fundraising drive is off to a rough start, and we very much need to raise $250,000 in the next couple of weeks. If you value the journalism you get from Mother Jones, please help us do it with a donation today.

As we wrote over the summer, traffic has been down at Mother Jones and a lot of sites with many people thinking news is less important now that Donald Trump is no longer president. But if you're reading this, you're not one of those people, and we're hoping we can rally support from folks like you who really get why our reporting matters right now. And that's how it's always worked: For 45 years now, a relatively small group of readers (compared to everyone we reach) who pitch in from time to time has allowed Mother Jones to do the type of journalism the moment demands and keep it free for everyone else.

Please pitch in with a donation during our fall fundraising drive if you can. We can't afford to come up short, and there's still a long way to go by November 5.

payment methods

ONE MORE QUICK THING:

Our fall fundraising drive is off to a rough start, and we very much need to raise $250,000 in the next couple of weeks. If you value the journalism you get from Mother Jones, please help us do it with a donation today.

As we wrote over the summer, traffic has been down at Mother Jones and a lot of sites with many people thinking news is less important now that Donald Trump is no longer president. But if you're reading this, you're not one of those people, and we're hoping we can rally support from folks like you who really get why our reporting matters right now. And that's how it's always worked: For 45 years now, a relatively small group of readers (compared to everyone we reach) who pitch in from time to time has allowed Mother Jones to do the type of journalism the moment demands and keep it free for everyone else.

Please pitch in with a donation during our fall fundraising drive if you can. We can't afford to come up short, and there's still a long way to go by November 5.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate