President Trump[1] is citing FBI[2] agent Peter Strzok’s recent testimony to Congress to bolster his assertion that special counsel Robert Mueller[3]’s investigation is “rigged” and a “witch hunt” that is hurting the country, ahead of a Monday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin[4].
Mr. Trump[5] said U.S.-Russian relations are hampered by the “witch hunt” and “rigged situation” in the United States, and went on to attack Mr. Strzok as a “disgrace to our country.”
“So when I look at things like that and he led that investigation or whatever you call it, I would say that, yeah, I think it hurts our relationship with Russia[6],” the president said in an interview with CBS released Sunday. “I actually think it hurts our relationship with a lot of countries. I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on.”
Mr. Strzok, a key figure in the FBI[7]’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and who also was part of Mr. Mueller[8]’s team, answered questions from House lawmakers last week on whether anti-Trump[9] bias influenced federal investigators’ work.
In one text message sent in August 2016 to FBI[10] lawyer Lisa Page, with whom Mr. Strzok had an extramarital affair, Mr. Strzok said “we’ll stop it” when Ms. Page asked whether Mr. Trump[11] would become president.
Mr. Strzok said the text was taken out of context and was written late at night, and that he meant the American people wouldn’t elect Mr. Trump[12].
Mr. Trump[13] said he wasn’t buying it.
“He says, ‘Oh, I meant the American people.’ All of a sudden, you know, he came up with excuses,” the president said. “I guess given to a lawyer, but everybody laughed at it.”
House lawmakers also interviewed Ms. Page behind closed doors last week....
Rep. John Ratcliffe, Texas Republican, said he didn’t find Mr. Strzok to be a credible witness. He said Mr. Strzok sent texts that said he would protect the country from Mr. Trump[14] as he was looking into the Russian collusion question.“He talked about an insurance policy,” Mr. Ratcliffe said Sunday on Fox News. “That alone really raises reasonable doubt and real questions about the validity of any evidence that he collected in this investigation, which became the special counsel probe.”Ahead of the president’s meeting with Mr. Putin[15] in Helsinki, the Justice Department last week announced an indictment stemming from Mr. Mueller[16]’s investigation that accuses 12 Russian military officials of hacking Democratic officials’ emails in 2016 and trying to use them to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.Mr. Ratcliffe said a major takeaway from the indictment is that no collusion-related charges were tied to Americans potentially assisting the Russian scheme.“It really seems