President Trump claims FISA court documents point to 'illegal scam' at FBI

John Fritze | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Trump was shown documents proving Putin ordered election meddling A new report from the New York Times reveals President Trump was shown classified documents proving Russia's President Putin ordered election interference. Nathan Rousseau Smith has the story.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is describing the release of hundreds of pages of documents sent to a secret federal surveillance court about a former campaign aide as confirming his position that the Justice Department "misled the courts."

Trump said the documents, used to request a wiretap of former campaign aide Carter Page, suggested "An illegal Scam" at the Justice Department.

"Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC," Trump wrote Sunday on Twitter. "Ask her how that worked out – she did better with Crazy Bernie."

Trump said the application for a wiretap to the surveillance court "are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of “Justice” and FBI misled the courts. Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam!"

Congratulations to @JudicialWatch and @TomFitton on being successful in getting the Carter Page FISA documents. As usual they are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of “Justice” and FBI misled the courts. Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2018

The records confirm that the FBI based its surveillance requests in part on the work of Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer hired by a research firm working for Clinton. But agents disclosed to the court that Steele “was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit” Trump’s campaign.

And the records show the FBI had broader suspicions – and more evidence – about Page’s possible ties to the Russian government. In applying for permission to wiretap him, investigators wrote that Page “has relationships with Russian Government officials, including Russian intelligence officers.”

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