President Donald Trump is meeting Monday with top law enforcement intelligence officials at the White House a day after demanding the Justice Department investigate whether it and the FBI infiltrated the Trump campaign “for political purposes.”
Trump was scheduled to talk with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, the White House said.
Spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the sit-down, which also will include White House chief of staff John Kelly, had been scheduled last week, and will focus on the response to congressional requests on a range of topics.
But the session comes less than 24 hours after the Justice Department asked its internal watchdog, the Office of the Inspector General, to investigate whether there were improprieties in the use of an alleged FBI source who provided authorities information about several Trump campaign operatives.
Trump had called for the Justice Department to investigate agency officials amid a blistering series of tweets on Sunday morning.
He said he wanted Justice to “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!”
Trump has been angry since last year about an ongoing probe into his campaign by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is also investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The president has repeatedly called that investigation a “witch hunt.” And he has suggested that the FBI had improperly surveilled his campaign while letting his opponent, Hillary Clinton, off of the hook for a probe related to her use of a private email server while secretary of state.
Trump’s ire on Sunday seems to have been ignited by a New York Times article on Saturday that revealed the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., three months before the election had met with an emissary for two rich Arab princes, an Israeli social media expert and a Republican, who were offering to help the Trump campaign.
