Trump, Defending Himself After Flynn Guilty Plea, Says F.B.I. Is in ‘Tatters’

Since the F.B.I.'s Russia investigation draws closer to him, President Trump on Sunday revealed an incredible attack on the country's highest law enforcement agency, calling it a biased association whose reputation for equity was "in tatters."

In a run of early-morning tweets, Mr. Trump stated that the F.B.I.'s status was now the "worst in the background." The attack was among the harshest in a production on an independent service that two days before had assistedprocure a guilty plea and a pledge of alliance in the president's first national security advisor.

Present and former F.B.I. officials, historians and lawmakers rebuked the president on his attempts to undermine the F.B.I.'s authenticity as it investigates if his effort colluded with Russian officials to influence the 2016 election. A president that has set himself as dedicated to law and order is currently in a public dispute with the nation's leading law enforcement representatives.

Thomas O’Connor, the president of this institution representing F.B.I. representatives, defended their ethics in a statement. "F.B.I. representatives are devoted to their mission," he said, claiming that they shown "unwavering ethics and professionalism" at work. "Suggesting otherwise is just untrue," he added.

Included in the agency's query, the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, is thought to be examining if Mr. Trump obstructed justice by shooting James B. Comey, the F.B.I. manager, who had been overseeing the question. Mr. Comey has stated Mr. Trump asked him to drop the investigation to Mr. Flynn. On Sunday, the president condemned Mr. Comey as a liar, stating that"I never requested Comey to quit exploring Flynn" and that Mr. Comey had hurt the agency and its own employees. In addition, he accused the agency's representatives of spending years pursing a "bogus and unethical" investigation to the email host of his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton.

Mr. Trump's fury at people exploring him, amazed even those who have new memories of his continued efforts over the last year to disparage intelligence agencies, the State Department and other pieces of his administration.

Eric H. Holder Jr., who had been President Barack Obama's first attorney general, reacted to the president tweets with a single of his very own defending the agency. "You will find honesty and ethics at FBI headquarters rather than in 1600 Penn Ave at this time," Mr. Holder composed.

Since he had to discredit the Russia question, which he's long referred to as a political "witch hunt," Mr. Trump on Sunday captured on reports that Mr. Mueller had eliminated a veteran F.B.I. representative since he sent text messages which seemed to express views critical of Mr. Trump.

In many tweets, the president aggressively criticized the representative, Peter Strzok, who had previously helped direct the 2016 research into if Mrs. Clinton had mishandled classified data on her personal email accounts. Mr. Strzok is thought to be one of the agency's most experienced and reliable counterintelligence investigators.

"Now it all begins to make sense!"

Many presidents input the Oval Office with an impulse to defend and promote the integrity and capabilities of the country's law enforcement bureaus. Mr. Trump came with another compulsion, fueled by a belief that intelligence and law enforcement officials were stoking questions regarding the validity of his election success.

By indicating -- because he has earlier -- that the F.B.I. and other bureaus are motivated by politics, Mr. Trump again embraced the sort of suspicions that feed conspiracy theories about a "deep state" working with a secret prejudice against him.

However, even though Mr. Trump's strikes on government agencies are currently a familiar subject, former F.B.I. officials and veteran observers of this bureau said they had been amazed at the simplicity by which the president sought to shield himself by attacking the reputations of Mr. Comey, Mr. Mueller, Mr. Strzok along with the 35,000 people working in the F.B.I.

Robert E. Anderson Jr., a former top spy hunter in the agency, said the president's remarks would have a dispiriting influence on F.B.I. morale, particularly among people that aren't engaged in political investigations.

"You have people working tirelessly in each corner of the world to guard the USA and its own people," Mr. Anderson said. "When he says what he says, it is an insult and it is degrading to the women and men that are sacrificing their own lives to protect this wonderful nation."

Mr. Anderson also came to the defense of Mr. Strzok, calling him "one of the very methodical, most meticulous, yet hard-working counterintelligence specialists from the complete United States intelligence community." Mr. Anderson stated Mr. Strzok "never exhibited political prejudice."

The president retweeted a Twitter article advocating Christopher A. Wray, the recent F.B.I. manager, to "clean house" in the bureau. In an announcement on Sunday, '' Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he'd led Mr. Wray to "review the information available on this and other things and immediately make any necessary alterations."

Mr. Trump has repeatedly clarified the F.B.I. as a service in chaos, frequently penalizes Mr. Comey -- a "showboat" along with also a "grandstander" -- for losing support among rank-and-file representatives. But a few years of internal employee surveys from the F.B.I. undercut that claim, demonstrating that workers gave Mr. Comey high marks for his direction.

And because taking more than four weeks ago, Mr. Wray has repeatedly praised the agency's workforce. In a language at October, Mr. Wray explained the agency's employees as "exceptional and committed."

"I wake up daily fired up to come to function -- to be a part of the extraordinary group -- and also to determine where we could go next," he explained.

Mr. Trump's attempts to shift attention away from Mr. Flynn's guilty plea started Saturday night, when he assailed that the Justice Department because of its handling of the Clinton email evaluation and questioned the department's devotion to living up to its title.

"Many individuals in our Nation are inquiring exactly what the 'Justice' Department will do about the fact that entirely Crooked Hillary, AFTER getting a subpoena in the United States Congress, deleted and 'acid sprayed' 33,000 Emails?" He composed, speaking to messages which Mrs. Clinton's attorneys had deemed irrelevant to her administration work.

In a different tweet Saturday night, Mr. Trump accused that the F.B.I. of ruining Mr. Flynn's lifetime because of his lying to representatives, while permitting "Crooked Hillary Clinton" off simple for that which he said were her very own lies to represent atives. He explained.

However, Mr. Trump seems to stay particularly fixated on Mr. Comey, who declared earlier Congress at June that the president had requested him to drop the query to Mr. Flynn's actions one day following Mr. Trump had fired Mr. Flynn. Mr. Comey declined to do so, and also the president stopped Mr. Comey a few months afterwards.

Back in one tweet on Sunday, Mr. Trump blamed "decades of Comey" in the helm of this F.B.I. for that which he sees as the harm to its own standing.

"After years of Comey, together with all the bogus and unethical Clinton investigation (and more), conducting the FBI, its standing is in Tatters -- worst at History!"

"The FBI's standing isn't in 'tatters,''' Mr. Holder composed on Twitter. "It is composed of exactly the exact same committed women and men who've consistently worked there and that do a fantastic, apolitical job."