Russia and Putin · 2024 campaign · № 71
Asked 'Who would you choose, Putin or these Misfits?' about U.S. intelligence and FBI officials
“Remember in Helsinki when a 3rd rate reporter asked me, essentially, who I trusted more, President Putin of Russia, or our "Intelligence" lowlifes. My instinct at the time was that we had really bad people in the form of James Comey, McCabe (whose wife was being helped out by Crooked Hillary while Crooked was under investigation!), Brennan, Peter Strzok (whose wife is at the SEC) & his lover, Lisa Page. Now add McGonigal & other slime to the list. Who would you choose, Putin or these Misfits?”
- Said
- , Truth Social post
- Subject
- Putin or 'these Misfits'
- Type
- Intelligence and security
- Topic
- Elections
- Era
- 2024 campaign
What happened
On January 23, 2023, the Justice Department unsealed an indictment charging Charles McGonigal, who had led the FBI's counterintelligence division in New York from 2016 to 2018, with working for sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in violation of U.S. sanctions. On January 30 Trump reposted a message about the case and returned to the July 2018 Helsinki news conference, at which he had said he did not 'see any reason' why Russia would have interfered in the 2016 election despite the U.S. intelligence assessment that it had. He listed former FBI and CIA officials by name, added McGonigal to the list and asked readers whether they would choose Putin or 'these Misfits.' Newsweek and The Independent reported the post as Trump again suggesting he trusted Putin over U.S. intelligence.