Rudy Giuliani wants to see all Mueller team members’ text messages to check for anti-Trump bias, the Trump attorney said Monday.
“I want to see all their texts. I want to see if they’re texting the same thing,” Giuliani said in an interview on “Fox & Friends.” “I’m willing to bet a dinner that they are. You’ve got two or three of them that are texting horrible things about Trump.”
Three FBI officials who worked on special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation have been found to have sent text messages criticizing President Donald Trump.
Peter Strzok, the former deputy chief of counterintelligence, sent messages to his mistress, FBI attorney Lisa Page, calling Trump an “idiot.” In one Aug. 8, 2016 text, Strzok told Page that “we’ll stop” Trump from becoming president. (RELATED: STRZOK: ‘We’ll Stop’ Trump Presidency)
Page, who resigned from the FBI on May 4, also sent messages blasting Trump.
Strzok and Page joined the Mueller team shortly after the special counsel investigation was started on May 17, 2017. Strzok was removed from the investigation after the Department of Justice’s inspector general discovered the text messages in July 2017. Page left Mueller’s team before the discovery of the messages.
An FBI lawyer named Kevin Clinesmith has also been identified as sending anti-Trump messages. Clinesmith was the FBI’s top attorney on the Russia investigation starting in early 2017. He joined the Mueller team and lasted through this February, when his text messages were recovered during the inspector general’s investigation.
In one Nov. 22, 2016 text exchange, Clinesmith wrote “Viva le [sic] resistance” to a question about whether he planned to support Trump post-election. (RELATED: FBI Lawyer Who Interviewed Trump Aide Sent ‘Resistance’ Text Message)
Clinesmith was one of the lawyers who took part in a Feb. 16, 2017 interview with former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the timing of his contacts with a Maltese professor during the campaign.
Giuliani also shed light on the Trump legal team’s plans for a potential interview with Mueller. He said that Trump is open to an interview to discuss allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. Giuliani reiterated Trump’s denials on the issue. But the former New York City mayor suggested that Trump is unwilling to field questions from Mueller regarding the obstruction of justice portion of his investigation. Mueller, a former FBI director, is reportedly looking into whether Trump obstructed justice in the firing of James Comey as FBI director.
WATCH:
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.