Politics

‘Viva Le Resistance’: Mueller Team Attorney Sent Anti-Trump Texts

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
Font Size:

An FBI attorney who worked on the special counsel’s Russia investigation until earlier this year sent anti-Trump text messages to a colleague, including one exclaiming: “Viva le Resistance.”

The attorney’s comments are revealed in a Justice Department inspector general’s report released on Thursday.

The lawyer is not identified, but he worked on the Hillary Clinton email investigation and was the FBI’s lead attorney on the investigation into Russian election interference. He was assigned to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation soon after it began in May 2017 and left in late February of this year after some of his private messages were shared with the special counsel.

The inspector general’s report focuses on instant messages that the attorney exchanged with a colleague about the Clinton and Russia probes. (RELATED: ‘Willingness’ To Impact The Election: IG’s Clinton Report Is Loaded With Bombshells)

“I am numb,” the attorney wrote on Nov. 9, 2016, the day after President Trump’s election.

“I am so stressed about what I could have done differently,” the lawyer continued, apparently referring to the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email probe.

The attorney’s messages show that he was distressed at the FBI’s decision in October 2016 to re-open the investigation into Clinton’s emails. Democrats have claimed that decision hurt Clinton at the polls.

The FBI lawyer also suggested that he would work to resist the Trump administration.

“Is it making you rethink your commitment to the Trump administration?” one FBI lawyer wrote on Nov. 22, 2016.

“Hell no. Viva le resistance,” the future Mueller attorney responded.

During interviews with the office of the inspector general, the lawyer claimed that his “personal political feelings or beliefs … in no way impacted” his work on the Clinton or Russia investigations.

The lawyer did acknowledge that the messages created the perception of anti-Trump bias. He told investigators that he “can understand the, the perception issues that come from” the Nov. 22, 2016 exchange.

The special counsel’s office declined to identify the attorney, but issued a statement stating that “FBI Attorney 2 did not work for the Special Counsel’s Office as a prosecutor or as an investigator.”

The special counsel directed further questions to the FBI, which did not respond to a request for comment.

This article has been updated with a comment from the special counsel’s office. 

Follow Chuck on Twitter

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.