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Donald Trump slams ‘disgraced’ ex-CIA chief for ‘hit job’ Russia investigation in Twitterstorm

The US president tweeted a Fox News analyst’s comments disparaging the former CIA director John Brennan

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From left, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Gina Haspel, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and US President Donald Trump at Haspel’s swearing-in ceremony on Monday at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Earlier, Trump tweeted disparaging remarks about the former CIA director John Brennan. Photo: Bloomberg

US President Donald Trump attacked the investigation of possible collusion between his campaign and Russia as a “political hit job” on Monday, claiming that the CIA and FBI were out of control in investigating his team.

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A day after demanding the Justice Department investigate the FBI’s use of an informant in his 2016 campaign, Trump assailed former CIA chief John Brennan as having initiated the inquiry into his team’s contacts with Russia.

Trump’s broadside came soon before the swearing-in of Gina Haspel as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, during which he introduced her as “a very special person,” uniquely qualified to lead “the most elite intelligence professionals on the planet Earth”.

Yet in a series of tweets, Trump lashed out at Brennan, the CIA’s head from 2013 to 2017, quoting Fox News commentator Dan Bongino as saying he had “started this entire debacle about President Trump”.

“This was a Political hit job, this was not an Intelligence Investigation,” Trump tweeted, citing Bongino. “John Brennan is panicking. He has disgraced himself, he has disgraced the Country, he has disgraced the entire Intelligence Community.”

Trump was referring to the exposure of a British-based CIA source over the weekend who reportedly befriended several Trump campaign aides in 2016 to help the nascent FBI investigation into Russian election meddling.

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