As the FBI fends off as wave of damaging stories — thousands of its Trump investigators' text messages mysteriously vanished after being demanded by Congress, other text messages reveal agents discussing an anti-Trump "secret society," and an apparent FISA memo is rumored to show unverified gossip being used to grant surveillance of the Trump campaign — many in the media are coming to the embattled agency's defense.
The FBI is apparently helping in the effort, as Tuesday it was leaked that Robert Mueller interviewed James Comey last year, and would like to speak with President Trump eventually. These details provided networks like CNN and MSNBC enough fodder to keep its focus of the FBI coverage on the Trump/Russia investigation, as opposed to the latest damaging revelations regarding its politically compromised investigators.
When reports about the "secret society" were covered on these networks, it was usually to dismiss these stories as a conspiratorial attack on the FBI writ large.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough accused Republicans discussing these "secret society" texts as "crackpots."
"Republicans are talking about this ‘secret society’ inside the FBI? " Scarborough said Wednesday. "They sound like crackpots. You know, that, uh, you know — Bill Buckley kicked out of the conservative movement back in the early 1960s. Like, you know, the illuminati, the Free Masons. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, all because of a FBI agent who sent text messages to a friend."
MSNBC contributor Clint Watts said reports on these texts messages are intended to "destroy a U.S. institution" and undermine America.
"Every time we see somebody from the Trump team or the campaign go in to get interviewed, suddenly there’s a rash of GOP outrage about text messages or attacking the FBI as an institution," Watts said. "I don’t know how that’s good for the country. Ultimately it damages our ability to do law enforcement and push for justice."
Watts and Scarborough both likened attacks on the FBI to the actions of third-world "authoritarians." Scarborough likened Trump to Joseph Stalin and Turkey's Recep Erdogan.
"And when they start talking about secret societies inside the Intel agencies, this is what Erdogan did in Turkey, to go after and persecute the military," the MSNBC host said. "And his Intel services. This is what Erdogan did to destroy democracy step by step, piece by piece in Turkey. I mean what — are Republicans really going to sit back and allow this to happen?"
On CNN, contributor David Axelrod said reports of Trump pressuring acting FBI director Christopher Wray to fire his deputy, Andy McCabe, shows it's Trump, not the FBI, who is politicizing the agency. "That is a threat to the rule of law," Axelrod claimed. "It's a major deal here."
NBC national security analyst, Jeremy Bash, said calls to release the so-called FISA memo are being "fueled by the Russian federation," citing a claim from Rep. Adam Schiff that the #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag was bring popularized by Russian bots.
MSNBC contributor Steve Schmidt said Republicans calling for an investigation into the FBI's Trump probe are practicing "latter day McCarthyism."
"There’s zero evidence that any of these FBI agents who have had their private text messages compromise, there’s zero evidence they misused their badge, their office, their credentials to abuse the president, his family or any of the president’s supporters," Schmidt said. "Again, this is smear campaign directed at these twos agents absent any evidence. This is latter day mccarthyism. And it is entirely about what it seems to be about, which is trying to blow smoke around this investigation to obstruct the American people from finding out what went on here at all costs."