Nearly two years ago, FBI Director Chris Wray set up an office tasked solely with stopping the type of Russian inference efforts that infected the 2016 campaign. On Wednesday night, Trump undercut the whole operation in a matter of seconds
by Justice Department veterans who deemed the Oval Office requests as out of line. But more recently, Trump has found an ally in William Barr, the new attorney general who has taken the president up on his demand for a wider examination into the origins of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump described such offers as “opposition research” and said he’d call the FBI only “if I thought there was something wrong.” Current and former Trump officials downplayed the president’s remarks as Trump being Trump. While the comments drive Democrats mad and consume the media, they matter to rank-and-file government workers only if they actually come come with direct orders, they argued.
The team brings together counterintelligence, cyber and counterterrorism officials — nearly 40 in total,a New York Times story — and coordinates with all 56 FBI field offices. It also works with the Homeland Security Department, state and local governments, as well as the major social media companies that Russian agents used to spread disinformation and stage fake rallies meant to incite voter anger.at a White House briefing last August.
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