FBI Whistleblower Tells Congress Former FBI Director James Comey Inserted Two Female Agent ‘Honeypots’ Inside Trump 2016 Campaign, Separate from Russia Hoax Investigation
The House Judiciary Committee is examining a whistleblower report that the FBI targeted Donald Trump soon after he announced his presidential campaign in June 2015, an off-the-books operation ordered by FBI Director James B. Comey that predated the Crossfire Hurricane operation.
An FBI agent involved in the probe revealed the off-the-books criminal investigation on Tuesday in a protected disclosure sent to the committee.
The whistleblower disclosure said two female FBI undercover agents infiltrated Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign at high levels and were directed to act as “honeypots” while traveling with Mr. Trump and his campaign staff on the trail.
According to the disclosure, which The Washington Times reviewed, the investigation differed from the later Crossfire Hurricane counterintelligence operation targeting Russian collusion. It said the early off-the-books probe was a criminal investigation targeting Mr. Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign staff.
The agent “personally knew” that Mr. Comey ordered an FBI investigation against Mr. Trump and that Mr. Comey “personally directed it,” according to the disclosure.
The off-the-books investigation did not appear to target a specific crime but was more of what agents would describe as a fishing expedition to find something incriminating about Mr. Trump.
The Times reached out to the FBI and Mr. Comey for comment.
A House Judiciary Committee spokesman said the committee received the whistleblower allegations and “plans to look into them.”
The whistleblower said the undercover operation was hidden from Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, who investigated misconduct in the bureau’s probe of the Trump campaign.
The whistleblower disclosure also said the secret investigation may indicate institutional bias against Mr. Trump, though “it does not appear that any information about this investigation was turned over to Trump’s criminal defense counsels.”
Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker said the report, if true, is a “booming, egregious violation” of the rules governing the attorney general and the FBI.
“It’s an unpredicated infiltration of a presidential campaign which is sensitive,” he told The Times. “It’s sensitive to the point where it would have to have been approved by the [attorney general] and … would have to be predicated. And in this case, I’m not hearing any predication. It would have to be on the books anyway, regardless.”
Mr. Trump launched his first presidential campaign on June 16, 2015, at Trump Tower in New York City, about a year before the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane, a counterintelligence investigation into whether members of the Trump campaign coordinated, knowingly or unknowingly, with the Russian government’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.
The FBI investigation and a Justice Department special counsel probe did not find evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
“The FBI employee personally observed one or more employees in the FBI being directed to never discuss the operation with anyone ever again, which included talking with other people involved in the operation,” the disclosure states.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/oct/29/whistleblower-james-comey-fbi-honey-pot-spies-infi/