Trump Launched Campaign to Discredit Potential FBI Witnesses..
President Donald Trump pressed senior aides last June to devise and carry out a campaign to discredit senior FBI officials after learning that those specific employees were likely to be witnesses against him as part of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.
In testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8, recently fired FBI Director James Comey disclosed that he spoke contemporaneously with other senior bureau officials about potentially improper efforts by the president to curtail the FBIs investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Mueller is investigating whether Trumps efforts constituted obstruction of justice.Not long after Comeys Senate testimony, Trump hired John Dowd, a veteran criminal defense attorney, to represent him in matters related to Muellers investigation. Dowd warned Trump that the potential corroborative testimony of the senior FBI officials in Comeys account would likely play a central role in the special counsels final conclusion, according to people familiar with the matter.
In discussions with at least two senior White House officials, Trump repeated what Dowd had told him to emphasize why he and his supporters had to fight back harder, in the words of one of these officials.
FULL STORY:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/26/trump-launched-campaign-to-discredit-potential-fbi-witnesses/