Judiciary Dem calls for DOJ probe into FBI informant leak

The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee said he will soon formally ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate who publicly exposed the identity of a confidential FBI informant and hold the person or persons behind the leak responsible. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, a deliberate decision to expose the identity of a confidential source is reckless, stupid, and dangerous.  Moreover, the decision to out this operative may be a crime,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said during a press conference on Thursday.

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“Later today, I will ask the Department of Justice to investigate the source of this disclosure — which never should have happened — and to hold the perpetrators accountable,” he continued. {mosads}

Nadler blasted President Trump for seeking to distract or even undermine the federal probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia as well as Kremlin interference in the 2016 election.

“He is obsessed with the special counsel’s investigation to the point of distraction,” the New York lawmaker said.

“He has no evidence whatsoever that an informant infiltrated Trump Tower or his campaign for any purpose, let alone an improper purpose, but he is willing to take the unprecedented step of ‘demanding’ a criminal investigation in an ill-conceived attempt to protect himself from federal investigators by distracting attention and engaging in continued attacks against the Department of Justice and the FBI.”

The Democrat-led press conference comes as conservatives are aggressively pursuing information from the DOJ about the confidential informant, who reportedly met with three advisers to Trump‘s campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

The group known as the Gang of Eight — which includes the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate as well as both parties’ leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees — are expected to meet with officials representing the DOJ, law enforcement and intelligence on Thursday to be briefed on classified information related to the Russia investigation.

The president and his allies have seized on this news, alleging that the Obama administration planted a “spy” within his campaign in an effort to dig up dirt on Republican candidate.

It is a common practice, however, for the bureau to use confidential informants in counterintelligence investigations. There is no public evidence of wrongdoing by either the informant or the FBI.