An annual survey of FBI employees found a sharp decline in confidence in bureau leadership amid a series of scandals, results published Sunday indicate.
Although pride in working at the FBI remained about the same, faith in the “honesty and integrity” of senior executives plummeted — going from an average employee rating of more than four out of five in 2017 to 3.5 out of five this year at the FBI’s 56 field offices.
Workers at FBI headquarters in Washington reported a slightly less dramatic erosion of faith in leaders’ honesty.
The survey data was collected in February and March amid significant internal uncertainty about the fate of top leaders including then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and FBI agent Peter Strzok.
Strzok, the former deputy assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division, helped lead investigations of Hillary Clinton’s private email server and possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia. He was removed last year from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe and remains under review for sending anti-Trump messages to former FBI attorney Lisa Page. – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]President Trump on Sunday called FBI Agent Peter Strzok’s testimony on Capitol Hill last week over the investigation of Russian interference in the election a “disgrace to our country.”
“I thought it was an absolute disgrace,” Trump said during an interview on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “Where he wants to do things against me before I was even, I guess before I was even the candidate. It was a disgrace. And then he lied about it.”
Trump added that he believes Strzok’s role in the investigation hurt the United States relationship with Russia.
“I think it hurts our relationship with Russia,” he said. “I actually think it hurts our relationship with a lot of countries.”
The explosive and combative 10-hour testimony by Strzok was the first time he’s spoken publically since being removed last year from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team because of texts he traded with an FBI lawyer in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. – READ MORE
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