US Justice Dept. to probe ‘infiltration’ of Trump campaign

The US Justice Department has begun investigating whether the department or the FBI “infiltrated or surveilled” President Donald Trump’s election campaign.

The department has asked its internal watchdog, the Office of the Inspector General, to expand its current inquiry into the surveillance of a former official in Trump’s campaign to include the questions raised by the president.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein ordered the inquiry on Monday after Trump demanded on Sunday that the Justice Department investigate whether the department or the FBI spied on his campaign at the behest of the administration of former President Barack Obama.

Trump made the order on Twitter during a day of public venting about the ongoing investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller who is probing Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election to sway the votes in Trump’s favor.

“I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes,” Trump tweeted on Sunday afternoon, “And if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!”

Rosenstein, the second-highest-ranking official in the Justice Department, is overseeing the Russia investigation.

“If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action,” Rosenstein said in a statement.

By handing the question to the inspector general, Rosenstein appeared to be trying to strike a balance, giving the president what he said he ordered without fully bowing to his demands.

PressTV-Trump wants his own investigation amid Russia probe

US President Donald Trump says he will “officially” ask Department of Justice to start an investigation into spying on the Trump campaign in 2016.

Legal experts said such a presidential interference had little precedent, and could force a clash between Trump and his Justice Department that would be reminiscent of the one surrounding former President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal, when a string of top officials resigned rather than carry out his order to fire a special prosecutor investigating him.

Nixon’s intervention to fire the special prosecutor investigating him produced a public relations disaster for him and set in motion impeachment proceedings which ended with Nixon stepping down from the presidency.

In the past few days, Trump has specifically been complaining about an FBI informant embedded in his election campaign, alleging that the infiltration would amount to a scandal "bigger than Watergate."

The informant reportedly met with Trump campaign advisers, George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, after learning that they had contacts with Russia.

Four former Trump associates have either pleaded guilty or been indicted in the Russia probe. This is while the president believes that the investigation is a "hoax," a “witch hunt,” or a “scam.”

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