PRESIDENT Donald Trump has attacked the FBI leadership while proclaiming loyalty and support for law enforcement in an address at the agency’s training academy.
“It’s a shame what’s happened” with the FBI, the president said as he departed the White House for a speech at the FBI training academy in Quantico, Virginia.
He called the agency’s handling of Hillary Clinton’s email investigation “really disgraceful” and said: “We’re going to rebuild the FBI”.
Shortly afterwards, Trump lavished praise on graduates of the academy’s programme and their families, pledging his unwavering support. He told law enforcement leaders he is “more loyal than anyone else could be” to police.
Hours before, White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said edits to former FBI director James Comey’s statement on Hillary Clinton’s private email server and text messages from a top agent critical of Trump were “deeply troubling”.
Edits to the Comey draft seemed to soften the bureau’s finding in its 2016 investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state.
Gidley said politically charged text messages sent by Peter Strzok, an agent on the Clinton case, were “eye-opening”. Strzok was assigned to Robert Mueller’s team to investigate potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, and re-assigned after the messages were uncovered.
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