January 12, 2019

The FBI Reportedly Investigated Whether Trump Was a Russian Agent, and Trump Is Furious

The bureau opened the investigation in 2017, after the president fired FBI Director James Comey.

President Donald Trump participates in a roundtable discussion on border security in Washington Friday. Chris Kleponis/CNP via ZUMA

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An irate President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to defend himself against a shocking New York Times report that the FBI opened an investigation in 2017 to determine whether the president was working on behalf of Russia.

Trump took aim at familiar targets—James Comey, Hillary Clinton, and Robert Mueller—portraying them as corrupt and in cahoots with each other. He also defended his own record on Russia, claiming (as if the Cold War never happened) that he has been “FAR tougher on Russia than Obama, Bush or Clinton. Maybe tougher than any other President.”

According to the Times, Trump’s own FBI opened a counter-intelligence investigation into whether he was working on behalf of Russia, and against the interests of the United States, after alarming behavior in May 2017 around the firing of Comey. When Mueller took over the Russia investigation that same month, he assumed this piece of it as well. Whether this area of the special counsel’s broader investigation remains open is unknown.

The investigation was prompted by circumstances surrounding Comey’s firing. The first was a letter that Trump drafted to Comey, which he never sent, in which he justified Comey’s firing and thanked Comey for confirming that Trump was not a subject of the Russia investigation. The second incident, according to the Times, was Trump’s NBC interview two days later in which he cited the Russia investigation as a reason to dismiss Comey. “When I decided to just do it, I said to myself—I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,” he said. “It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.” 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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