 |
| |
 | | | | The biggest political news of the day | | In today's edition: Trump pressures top law enforcement and intelligence officers to turn over information to Congress and the CIA gets a new director while Trump laments an old one | | |
| |
| |
| |
| It's Monday, OP fam, and what a doozy of a day it has been. Are we witnessing President Trump insert himself into the investigation of his own campaign? He does have the constitutional power to give orders to the people leading the investigation, after all. |
| We'll get to that. Before we do, read the latest and get your friends to subscribe. |
| Ready? Let's go. |
We wanna be in the room where it happens |
 | | Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein leaves the White House Monday after meeting with President Trump about documents concerning the Russia investigation. | | Evan Vucci , Evan Vucci, AP | |
| President Trump on Monday met with top law enforcement and intelligence officials, asking them to turn over to Congress information about the origins of the FBI investigation into his own campaign. |
| The White House is characterizing this meeting, which included Deputy Attorney General, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, as routine. |
| But, as USA TODAY's Kevin Johnson and Gregory Korte reported, this came just a day after Trump demanded that the Justice Department investigate whether the FBI spied on his 2016 presidential campaign. |
| And when we say he demanded, we really mean it. |
| "I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes - and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!" he tweeted on Sunday. |
| By the end of Monday's meeting, officials agreed to have the Justice Department's inspector general investigate "irregularities," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. |
| Stay tuned. |
New and old |
 | | President Trump applauds incoming Central Intelligence Agency director Gina Haspel during a swearing-in ceremony at CIA Headquarters Monday in Langley, Va. | | Evan Vucci , Evan Vucci, AP | |
| And in other "Trump and the intelligence community" news, President Trump welcomed his new CIA director, Gina Haspel, to her new role. |
| He praised Haspel - a controversial pick because of her oversight of a so-called "black site" where suspected terrorists were subjected to waterboarding - and said the CIA was made up of "the most elite intelligence professionals on the planet Earth." |
| "Our enemies will take note: Gina is tough, she is strong, and when it comes to defending America, Gina will never ever back down," Trump said. "The exceptional men and women of this agency deserve exceptional leadership, and in Gina Haspel that is exactly what you are getting." |
| But just hours before, the president attacked Obama's CIA director, accusing John Brennan of engaging in a "political hit job" against him. |
| "He has disgraced himself, he has disgraced the Country, he has disgraced the entire Intelligence Community. He is the one man who is largely responsible for the destruction of American's faith in the Intelligence Community and in some people at the FBI," he tweeted. |
Elsewhere in politics |
| |
| |
| MOST SHARED USA TODAY ARTICLES |
| |
| |
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment