FBI agrees to look into Trump complaint over tactics

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The US Justice Department agreed on Monday to investigate "any irregularities" in FBI tactics related to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and review classified information with congressional leaders.

Trump suggested on Friday that the FBI might have planted or recruited an informant in his presidential campaign for political purposes, citing unidentified reports that at least one FBI representative was "implanted."

White House meeting

The agreement to conduct a review came during a meeting that Trump had with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

The Justice Department "has asked the inspector general to expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s or the Department of Justice’s tactics concerning the Trump Campaign," Sanders added.

President Donald Trump on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, May 21, 2018. /VCG Photo

The White House will also set up a meeting with the FBI, the Justice Department and the intelligence community to let congressional leaders review classified information related to Trump's accusations, Sanders said.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the plan to review classified information highly inappropriate and said if such a meeting takes place, it must include Democrats, not just Republicans, as a "check on the disturbing tendency of the president’s allies to distort facts and undermine the investigation and the people conducting it.”

Federal investigators are probing whether anyone in the Trump campaign worked with Russia to sway the election to the Republican candidate.

Trump has denied any collusion and repeatedly dismissed the investigation as a "witch hunt."

FBI's Trump probe

The FBI was looking into Trump election campaign ties to Moscow before Special Counsel Robert Mueller took over the probe a year ago.

"If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action," Rosenstein said in a statement on Sunday evening.

FBI Director Christopher Wray departs the White House after a meeting on FBI investigations into the 2016 Trump presidential campaign with US President Donald Trump, May 21, 2018. /VCG Photo

Democrats said Mueller and his investigation should be protected and information, such as about any informant, should not be shared with Congress.

Justice Department "regulations protect this type of information from disclosure to Congress for legitimate investigative and privacy reasons,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a letter to Rosenstein on Monday.

Republicans allege misconduct

Trump has shown increasing signs of impatience with the investigation led by Mueller as it enters its second year, saying it was politically motivated and had its roots in the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama.

His Republican allies in Congress, led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, have pushed the same message.

US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein departs the White House after a meeting on FBI investigations into the 2016 Trump presidential campaign with US President Donald Trump, May 21, 2018. /VCG Photo

In March, the Justice Department's inspector general launched a review into allegations by Republican lawmakers that the FBI made serious missteps when it sought a warrant to monitor a former adviser to Trump’s 2016 election campaign

Republican US Representative Lee Zeldin said he and 16 other members of Congress will introduce a resolution on Tuesday alleging Justice Department and FBI misconduct involving surveillance in the Trump-Russia probe.

Neither Trump nor his new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, provided any evidence of government infiltration into Trump’s presidential campaign.

The New York Times, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the FBI sent an informant to talk to two Trump campaign advisers, Page and George Papadopoulos, after the agency received evidence that the two men had suspicious contacts linked to Russia during the campaign.

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty last fall to lying to FBI agents about his contacts with Russia.

(With input from agencies)

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