For President Trump’s reelection effort, “Investigate the investigators!” is becoming the new “Lock her up!”
Trump and his allies, seeking to amplify claims that the FBI spied on
his 2016 campaign, are seizing on news reports and statements by
Attorney General William P. Barr to launch a political rallying cry they
view as an antidote to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s
findings.
Dismissed by critics as an outlandish conspiracy theory, so-called
“spygate” is fast becoming a central feature of the Trump campaign as it
seeks to go on offense in the wake of a report that identified 10
instances of potential obstruction of justice by Trump. The campaign is
publicly calling for criminal investigations into former FBI officials,
making “spygate” fundraising pitches and selling spy-themed merchandise.
The goal, officials said, is to turn the Russia probe into a political
winner that could help him secure another term.
“After two years of [investigations] and being vindicated, and now in
fact the tables are turning in that the investigators will be
investigated, there’s a certain amount of righteous indignation that’s
warranted,” said Tim Murtaugh, communications director for Trump’s
reelection bid. “The president has already shown that he wants to talk
about it. He’s been tweeting about it. I’m sure he’ll talk about it at
rallies. It’s something that the campaign will continue to point to.”
Murtaugh highlighted a Thursday article from
the New York Timesdescribing how the FBI sent an investigator posing as
a research assistant to meet with Trump campaign adviser George
Papadopoulos in 2016 — a covert effort to better understand the
campaign’s links to Russia. Murtaugh said it was “astounding” that the
story had not received as much media coverage as some Russia-related
episodes unearthed by Mueller.
Referring to the story on Friday, Trump said it was “bigger than Watergate, as far as I’m concerned.”
Trump has long sought to paint his political opponents as criminally
suspect, spending much of 2016 leading “Lock her up!” chants that
targeted his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
After Trump’s own conduct became the subject of Mueller’s criminal
investigation — which did not establish that his campaign conspired with
Russia’s election interference but indicated that he may have
obstructed justice — the president is aiming to change the narrative by
highlighting the allegations of improper spying by the FBI.
Trump has gotten a boost from Barr, who used recent congressional
hearings about Mueller’s probe to express concerns that the Trump
campaign may have been the victim of improper surveillance. When
pressed, Barr declined to offer evidence and said he was simply
“concerned about it” and “looking into it.”
Republicans have long claimed that the FBI’s actions targeting Carter
Page, the former Trump campaign adviser whose communications were
secretly surveilled in late 2016 and early 2017 under a warrant from the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, amounted to political spying.
Surveillance of Page took place after he left the Trump campaign and was authorized by several judges.
Since the Mueller report was released, President Trump has attempted to flip the script by casting himself as a victim. (Alex Brandon/AP)
Democrats have criticized Barr’s allegations as irresponsible and have
dismissed Trump’s charges of spying as a political smokescreen aimed at
distracting from Mueller’s findings.
“The Trump campaign is trying to use a debunked conspiracy theory to
distract from the Trump administration’s attacks on the rule of law and
its attempts to cover up Mueller’s findings,” said Daniel Wessel, a
spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. “Voters won’t be
fooled.”
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is conducting an
internal investigation into aspects of the Russia probe, including the
FISA warrant targeting Page. Barr has said Horowitz’s report would
probably be completed in May or June.
Trump has also said he will soon be declassifying documents related to the warrant.
“Declassifying that and much more — yes,” Trump said Wednesday in an
interview with Boston Herald Radio’s “The Adriana Cohen Show.” “I will
be releasing that and many other things.”
Trump’s focus on re-litigating the origins of the Russia probe serves a
purpose beyond ginning up his political base, campaign aides and allies
said.
It helps the president create a new narrative casting himself as a
victim even as House Democrats pursue multiple investigations into
Trump, his administration and his businesses.
As Democrats issue subpoenas, hold hearings and seek to interview witnesses identified in the Mueller report, Trump and his allies plan to offer counterprogramming by intensifying their public scrutiny of the Russia probe’s origins.
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), a Trump confidant and chairman of the
Judiciary Committee, has said he plans to investigate the investigation
into Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“When the Mueller report is put to bed, and it soon will be, this
committee is going to look long and hard at how this all started,” he
said Wednesday during a hearing with Barr.
The Mueller report documented that the FBI’s counterintelligence probe
began after a foreign government alerted U.S. officials that
Papadopoulos claimed in 2016 that he had heard about a Russian effort to
help the Trump campaign by anonymously releasing damaging information
about Clinton.
The Mueller report also documented multiple contacts between Trump’s
campaign and Russian officials as the Kremlin was taking action to
interfere in the election. Several Trump aides were receptive to Russian
help, and some were convicted of lying to investigators about their
communications with Russians, the report found. Mueller did not
establish that Trump’s campaign conspired in Russia’s effort to
influence the election.
Trump allies believe there’s political benefit in continuing to talk
about the Russia investigation, as it allows the president to cast
himself as a victim of powerful forces like the FBI. Most do not mention
that the FBI did not reveal its investigation into Trump’s campaign
until after the election, while it made unprecedented disclosures about
its investigation into Clinton’s use of private email for government
business.
Clinton, who was not charged, has said that her loss was partially
caused by those FBI disclosures in the days before the election.
Bryan Lanza, an adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign and transition, said
the president can prevail politically by using the Russia investigation
to attack the Democrats.
“There are partisan Democrats that want to turn the page on an ugly part
of American history,” he said. “But we’re not going to let them do
that.”
The Trump campaign has already sought to turn the spying allegations into a fundraising pitch.
There’s some evidence it’s working. A Republican Party official said
that Trump’s campaign has had two days of fundraising totals above $1
million since the Mueller report was released last month. A campaign
official said fundraising in the 24 hours after the report was released
to the public and Congress on April 18 was up about 250 percent from
previous days. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to
describe internal fundraising figures.
The campaign, meanwhile, has been selling spy-themed merchandise. One
T-shirt for sale depicts former president Barack Obama donning a set of
spy glasses while lurking in thick green shrubbery.
