The acting FBI director may promise that
the investigation into Trump-Russia connections will continue. Many agents
aren’t buying it.
By Jana Winter and Betsy Woodruff
On Tuesday night, after James
Comey got fired, FBI agents tasked with thwarting Russian intelligence
operations started drinking.
Two well-connected former FBI employees
told The Daily Beast that counterintelligence agents working on the Russian
counterintelligence program out of FBI headquarters in downtown Washington met
for drinks in the hours after their boss’s firing and shared their concerns:
that they would be reassigned elsewhere, and their work on the Russian-Trump
associates investigation would come to a grinding halt.
“We do not have any comment,” an FBI
spokeswoman said in an email to The Daily Beast Friday morning.
These are worries that have spread
through the bureau in the days since Comey
was fired: that the new administration will find ways to stymie
investigations that could create political problems—especially on Russia. It’s
a concern the president himself exacerbated in an interview with NBC News’
Lester Holt that aired Thursday evening.
“And in fact 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, it’s an excuse by
the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won,’” the
president said, discussing his reasoning for firing Comey.
Among current and former agents who
worked on Russian counterintelligence, concern about political meddling is
palpable.
“It’s complete bananas,” said one FBI
source. “Management in counterintelligence are insanely concerned, worried
about the overreaching obstruction and political influence from the White
House.”
And a former high-ranking FBI official
who worked on aspects of the case said there’s “no doubt the investigation can
be damaged.”
“This particular case is within HQ with
pieces in other field offices,” the source continued. “Hard to stop, but definitely
subvert.”
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Source:
The Daily Beast
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