Yahoo News White House says DoJ to expand investigation after meeting with Trump
The White House announced on Monday that the Department of Justice would “expand its investigation” of the 2016 election to include “any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s or the Department of Justice’s tactics concerning the Trump campaign”.
The statement, issued by Trump’s press secretary Sarah Sanders, came shortly after Donald Trump finished a meeting with deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, FBI director Christopher Wray and director of national intelligence Dan Coats.
The meeting, which was not on the White House’s public schedule, came the day after Trump demanded an investigation over a government informant’s meeting with several people connected with his campaign in 2016.
Trump posted on Twitter on Sunday: “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!”
A number of House Republicans have been vocally demanding information from the justice department about the informant, including Devin Nunes, the chair of the House intelligence committee, and Mark Meadows, leader of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. Meadows tweeted supportively of Trump’s demand on Monday: “This is the right call from Donald Trump – we’ve seen disturbing evidence that the FBI engaged in political targeting.”
The White House also said in the statement that chief of staff John Kelly “will immediately set up a meeting with the FBI, DoJ, and DNI together with congressional leaders to review highly classified and other information they have requested.” It was unclear what they will review and which members will be part of the process.
The DoJ a year ago announced the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Russian interference in the presidential election and alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russians operative.
