FBI informant briefing

FBI informant briefing could speed Trump-Mueller interview, Giuliani says

The claim is likely to tap into Democratic fears that Trump is leveraging his power to expose details of the Mueller probe.

By KYLE CHENEY and DARREN SAMUELSOHN

Two highly classified briefings Thursday about an FBI informant who contacted the Trump campaign could help grease the wheels for a highly anticipated interview between President Donald Trump and special counsel Robert Mueller, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani told POLITICO.

“We want to see how the briefing went to today and how much we learned from it,” Giuliani said in a Thursday phone call. “If we learned a good deal from it, it will shorten that whole process considerably.”

Two White House emissaries made appearances at the briefings — chief of staff John Kelly and Emmet Flood, an attorney representing Trump in Mueller's probe of whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia on its election interference efforts. But both left after just a few minutes, before attendees discussed any sensitive matters, according to the White House and attendees.

Still, their inclusion — and Giuliani's remarks — are likely to further enrage Democrats, who have bashed the briefings from the start as a partisan sham meant to undercut Mueller's scrutiny of the president.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, who attended one of the meetings as the Senate Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, said he had "never seen a Gang of Eight meeting that included any presence from the White House," a reference to the bipartisan group of senior lawmakers that normally receives intelligence information.

Giuliani shrugged off the concern.

“I’d assume they’ll be very careful we don’t get information we shouldn’t get,” he said. “I don’t want the guy’s identity. I don’t want classified information. What I need to know is, 'What’s the basis for their doing it?' Most important, 'What did the informant produce?'"

But the informant's identity is already known — it leaked to media outlets in recent days. After the meeting, House Judiciary Committee Democrats indicated they are now going to aggressively pursue how that occurred.

"I ask you to investigate this case for potential violations of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act," Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the panel, wrote in a letter sent Thursday to FBI and DOJ leaders. "I want to better understand how this breach may undermine national security at home and abroad."

The meetings were the end result of a standoff between the intelligence community and congressional Republicans, who have spent weeks demanding classified documents detailing the scope of the informant’s work. According to media reports, the informant met with at least two Trump aides to try and suss out any privileged knowledge they might have had about Russia's election interference activities.

Trump, however, has accused the informant of acting as a spy, planted by the FBI to undermine his campaign. Trump's allies in Congress say requesting more details about the incident is a legitimate exercise of their oversight power as they probe partisan allegations of misconduct inside to FBI.

Aghast Democrats and national security experts say the use of an informant is a routine part of counterintelligence operations like the Russia probe — and that Trump's supporters are trying to damage the ongoing investigations.

“Nothing we heard today has changed our view that there is no evidence to support any allegation that the FBI or any intelligence agency placed a 'spy' in the Trump campaign," said House Intelligence ranking member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), speaking after the meetings on behalf of Democratic attendees.

Schiff was the only Democrat to attend the first briefing Thursday — and even that only came after much cajoling.

Initially, the gathering was only scheduled to include Republican — a break with congressional tradition of convening the bipartisan Gang of Eight for intelligence rundowns. The group includes the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, as well as the Republican and Democratic leaders of each branch's intelligence committee.

Democrats were eventually able to muscle their way into the Republican-only meeting, as well as score a second, bipartisan meeting.

Attendees were briefed at both meetings by FBI Director Chris Wray, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Mueller probe, as well as various FBI and DOJ staffers.

At both meetings, Kelly and Flood also gave opening remarks "to relay the President’s desire for as much openness as possible under the law," the White House said in a statement. "They also conveyed the President’s understanding of the need to protect human intelligence services and the importance of communication between the branches of government."

Wednesday night, Giuliani gave Trump a rundown on what to expect at the gathering as part of a 30-minute session meant to "get him up to date on what’s going on” in the Russia investigation. The two met in New York at the Palace Hotel on the sidelines of a GOP campaign event.

“His mood was excellent. He feels we’re on offense now,” Giuliani said.

But as lawmakers exited Thursday's meetings, it wasn't immediately clear what type of information, exactly, was shared at the gatherings.

"As always, I cannot and will not comment on a classified session," House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement following the first meeting, which he attended. "I look forward to the prompt completion of the intelligence committee's oversight work in this area now that they are getting the cooperation necessary for them to complete their work while protecting sources and methods."

The briefing is partly a result of House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes' decision last month to subpoena documents regarding the informant. The Justice Department initially denied his request, claiming that providing the information would endanger national security and risk lives. Nunes rejected the claim and threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt.

It's unknown if Thursday's confab will cause Nunes and other House Republicans to back down.

Some Republicans predicted the gatherings are actually unlikely to produce the material they're demanding, a result that could reignite hostilities between Trump supporters in the House and the Justice Department.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, who speaks frequently to Trump, said he's confident the GOP won't receive the documents they're seeking on the FBI informant. As a result, Meadows said, impeachment of top DOJ figures like Rosenstein should remain on the table. He and other Trump defenders have also called for the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate allegations of FBI misconduct.