A week ago, FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress that effectively intervened in the presidential campaign. Two days earlier, Rudy Giuliani, one of Donald Trump’s surrogates, told Fox News that the Republican ticket had “a surprise or two that you’re going to hear about in the next few days.”Giuliani added that he was “talking about some pretty big surprises” that “should turn [the presidential campaign] around.” He added, “I think it will be enormously effective.”With the benefit of hindsight, we now know, of course, what the former mayor was referring to. But it raises a fairly obvious question: how’d the Trump campaign know what the FBI intended to do and when the bureau would do it?As the Huffington Post noted this morning, Giuliani appeared on Fox and explained what happened.
Rudy Giuliani said Friday that he knew the FBI planned to review more emails tied to Hillary Clinton before a public announcement about the investigation last week, confirming that the agency leaked information to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. […]”I did nothing to get it out, I had no role in it,” he said. “Did I hear about it? You’re darn right I heard about it, and I can’t even repeat the language that I heard from the former FBI agents.”
It’s worth emphasizing that Giuliani said he didn’t speak to active FBI officials, only former bureau agents*.But that only helps as a matter of degree. FBI officials didn’t give the Trump campaign advance warning about a campaign bombshell, but FBI officials did tell former FBI officials, who in turn gave the Trump campaign advance warning about a campaign bombshell.We’re no longer talking about speculation. This isn’t an instance in which the Clinton campaign is accusing the FBI of tipping off a top official in the Trump campaign. Rather, we’re now talking about an admission from Trump’s top surrogates, who bragged about it on national television. “You’re darn right” Giuliani got a tip from inside the bureau, receiving internal details despite his partisan role in the election.Once the smoke clears on this election, the FBI has quite a bit of work to do.* Note, Giuliani swore up and down this morning, “I’m real careful not to talk to any on-duty, active FBI agents. I don’t want to put them in a compromising position.” Last week, however, Giuliani said, “The other rumor that I get is that there’s a kind of revolution going on inside the FBI…. I know that from former agents. I know that even from a few active agents.”So, which is it? Does Giuliani get leaks from active FBI agents or doesn’t he?
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Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."