Trump allies say ex-FBI official’s ‘explosive’ testimony confirms Russia probe biased

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s closest congressional allies said Wednesday that a four-hour interview with former FBI general counsel James Baker had “fundamentally changed” their understanding of the Justice Department’s Russia investigation, confirming and furthering their previous convictions that federal law enforcement agencies were biased in their scrutiny of Trump’s campaign.

Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, both leaders in the conservative House Freedom Caucus, called the closed-door meeting the “most informative” interview they have had in the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees’ nearly yearlong probe into the FBI’s investigations of the Trump campaign’s alleged Russia ties and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Democrats have repeatedly argued that the Republicans’ aim is to undermine and discredit the FBI and Justice Department, as well as Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election. They have also criticized the probe’s format of conducting private interviews, saying that doing so allows Republicans to misrepresent witnesses’ testimony.

Jordan told reporters that Baker informed them of a “completely new” and “explosive” source who provided information “directly” to the FBI “during the time that the DOJ and the FBI were putting together” an application to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. He offered no details about the source, or the information the source provided to the bureau, beyond saying it was “related to the whole Russia investigation.”

Meadows and Jordan have been among Trump’s most dogged defenders as the president seeks to discredit federal law enforcement’s Russia investigations, which Trump has labeled a “witch hunt.” Earlier this year, Meadows and Jordan led a movement to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for refusing to turn over documents they believed would expose the Mueller investigation’s “rotten” foundations, as Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has described it.

Jordan hinted that Baker’s testimony may have bolstered their complaint that the FBI failed to include in its surveillance application evidence that would have steered suspicion away from Page. It “sheds even more light on just how wrong this whole idea, when they took this dossier to the secret court and did what they did,” he said.