- Allies of President Donald Trump have been attacking special counsel Robert Mueller's team amid revelations of potential political biases.
- One veteran agent was removed from Mueller's team over the summer after the Justice Department learned of text messages that could be perceived as anti-Trump.
- Former FBI agents say the attacks on Mueller's team are "nonsense."
Attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of investigators escalated sharply last week, culminating in a partisan haranguing of the FBI director on Thursday over the perceived missteps of his predecessor.
Conservative and far-right media outlets, already skeptical of Mueller’s probe into President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, grew louder in their calls for FBI Director Chris Wray to either clean house or for Mueller to resign. It came after news that two special counsel investigators at one point exhibited perceived political bias.
Trump again characterized the criminal justice system as "rigged" during a rally in Florida on Friday, echoing comments he made last weekend following former national security Michael Flynn's guilty plea as part of Mueller's probe.
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"So General Flynn lies to the FBI and his life is destroyed, while Crooked Hillary Clinton, on that now famous FBI holiday 'interrogation' with no swearing in and no recording, lies many times," Trump tweeted last Saturday. "And nothing happens to her? Rigged system, or just a double standard?"
Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, implored Wray during a hearing on Thursday to "repair the damage done by" former FBI Director James Comey. And he took a shot at Mueller's investigation, questioning "the magnitude of insider bias" that exists on his team.
Former FBI agents who spoke to Business Insider this week characterized the outcry as "nonsense" aimed at discrediting an investigation that has dogged Trump and the GOP more broadly for over a year.
Frank Montoya, Jr., a former FBI special agent who served as the Director of t
Peter Strzok, a veteran counterintelligence agent who was among those overseeing the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server last year, was abruptly removed from Mueller's Russia probe in late July and relegated to the human resources department.
Neither Mueller nor the Justice Department have commented on Strzok's sudden demotion. But he was apparently removed as part of a broader investigation into the bureau's handling of the Clinton email probe by the DOJ's inspector general.
Strzok reportedly sent text messages during the presidential campaign to another member of Mueller's team, Lisa Page, that could be perceived as anti-Trump. He and Page were also having an extramarital affair that the DOJ worried could make them both subject to blackmail. Page left Mueller's team over the summer for unrelated reasons.
High-profile conservative figures and Trump allies, such as the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal editorial board and Fox News host Sean Hannity, quickly weaponized another damaging report published last week. It said Strzok had been instrumental in changing Comey's final characterization of Clinton's conduct from
"I think Pete did what he was asked to do, and then he was thrown to the wolves," said the former counterintelligence agent who requested anonymity to discuss Strzok. "What I don’t yet see is what Mueller is getting out of it. But there is a lot going on here that is still not known to the public."