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President Donald Trump appears increasingly frustrated with the swirling Russia investigation.
- President Donald Trump sent Wednesday morning tweets again criticizing the Justice Department and intelligence agencies.
- He is now calling the reported instance of an FBI informant talking to Trump campaign officials before the 2016 election "SPYGATE."
- That incident started before the special counsel Robert Mueller began his investigation into Russian election interference and the Trump campaign's possible involvement.
President Donald Trump scolded what he called the "Criminal Deep State" for its investigation into his campaign's possible collusion with Russia during the 2016 election and allegedly placing a spy within his team.
"They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!" Trump tweeted on Wednesday.
Trump then branded the scandal as "SPYGATE", which he tweeted "could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!"
Trump is referring to a story reported by both The Washington Post and The New York Times on Friday that an American professor who teaches in Britain was tapped by the FBI to speak with Trump campaign officials before the 2016 election.
There's no substantial evidence that the informant, whose identity has been concealed, "infiltrated" Trump's campaign to spy, as the president has suggested. Instead, many close to the US intelligence community maintain the FBI wanted this person to gauge the level of contact between Trump's people and Russia.
But at Trump's request, the Justice Department has opened an inquiry into the investigation regarding former campaign aide Carter Page to "include determining whether there was any impropriety or political motivation in how the FBI conducted its counterintelligence investigation of persons suspected of involvement with the Russian agents who interfered in the 2016 presidential election," a Justice Department spokeswoman said.
Trump went on to rip James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence, for saying on "The View" that Trump should be "happy" that FBI agents were "trying to understand were the Russians infiltrating, trying to gain access, trying to gain leverage or influence which is what they do," by covertly contacting his campaign.
"No, James Clapper, I am not happy. Spying on a campaign would be illegal, and a scandal to boot!" Trump tweeted.
John Haltiwanger contributed to this report.