Top Trump ally and former federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani has boasted more than once about being in touch with FBI agents who are hot after Hillary. One example, from Oct. 28, via the Daily Beast:

“The other rumor that I get is that there’s a kind of revolution going on inside the FBI about the original conclusion [not to charge Clinton] being completely unjustified and almost a slap in the face to the FBI’s integrity,” said Giuliani. “I know that from former agents. I know that even from a few active agents.”

The FBI’s “Ethics and Integrity Program” guide, meanwhile, stipulates to its employees that they may not use “any influence arising from [their] Federal position … in concert with any campaign.” More broadly, it says, “FBI employees must never use their FBI title or position in any way to advance any particular partisan activity.”

Does leaking unflattering information about Hillary Clinton to one of Donald Trump’s top advisers count as working in concert with a campaign and/or advancing a partisan activity? It would seem that Rudy Giuliani understands that that might be the case, because when he went on Fox on Friday he denied that he’s in touch with current agents. “I’m real careful not to talk to any on-duty, active FBI agents,” he claimed, despite having attested at least twice in recent months to having done so.

Two days before Comey’s letter was released, by the way, Giuliani told Fox News that the Trump campaign was expecting “a surprise or two that you’re going to hear about in the next few days. I mean, I’m talking about some pretty big surprises. … We’ve got a couple of things up our sleeve that should turn this thing around.”

With this and Chris Christie’s top aides being convicted of public corruption felonies, I’m beginning to think Donald Trump might not be as committed to the cause of good government as he says he is!

Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 campaign.