"Reports are there was indeed at least one FBI representative implanted, for political purposes, into my campaign,” President Donald Trump tweeted Friday. | Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images Trump: If FBI 'implanted' officials in my campaign, it would be 'biggest political scandal' in history

President Donald Trump on Friday tweeted that if it’s true that the Federal Bureau of Investigation "implanted" officials for political purposes inside his 2016 presidential campaign, it would be the "biggest political scandal" of all time.

"Reports are there was indeed at least one FBI representative implanted, for political purposes, into my campaign for president. It took place very early on, and long before the phony Russia Hoax became a “hot” Fake News story," the president tweeted. "If true - all time biggest political scandal!"


The remarks come two days after The New York Times reported that "at least one government informant met several times" with Trump campaign advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos as part of the Justice Department's investigation the team's ties to Russia.

Trump and his allies have seized on the report to question the origins of the federal probe into his campaign and Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential race, which the president had labeled a "witch hunt."

The president on Thursday cited a National Review report to back the notion that the bureau spied on his campaign, part of a larger effort by Trump's team to discredit the ongoing investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller.

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“Wow, word seems to be coming out that the Obama FBI “SPIED ON THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN WITH AN EMBEDDED INFORMANT,” Trump tweeted, referencing a column run by the outlet. “Andrew McCarthy says, ‘There’s probably no doubt that they had at least one confidential informant in the campaign.’ If so, this is bigger than Watergate!”

Both the New York Times and the Washington Post published stories Friday night reporting that a secret FBI informant met with multiple Trump campaign officials in 2016, but did not name the source.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a new member of the president's legal team, said earlier Friday on CNN that neither he nor the president knew for certain whether there was one or more FBI "informant" that infiltrated the Trump campaign. "Here's the issue that I really feel strongly about with this informant, if there is one. First of all, I don't know for sure, nor does the President, if there really was. We're told that," he said.

Giuliani added that Trump's lawyers "were told there were two embedded people in the campaign" and that the report by the Times "corroborates what people told us off the record."