President Donald J. Trump said Wednesday he was trying to clean up the Justice Department, calling for transparency in the investigation of his campaign during the presidential election.
“What I want is total transparency, you have to have transparency,” Trump said to reporters at the White House.
The president made his remarks as he left the White House for New York City, where he plans to host a roundtable on the ongoing fight against illegal immigration and MS-13.
He denied that he was undercutting the authority of the federal law enforcement agencies, by challenging the FBI’s use of an informant to spy on his campaign.
“We’re not undercutting. We’re cleaning everything up. This was a terrible situation,” Trump said, calling his actions “a service to this country.”
Reporters challenged him for criticizing agents in the Justice Department and questioned whether or not he trusted Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to oversee the investigation.
“Everybody wants this solved, but a lot of bad things have happened, we’re now calling it ‘Spygate,’ you’re calling it ‘Spygate,’ Trump said.
He said he wanted members of Congress and the Justice Department to work together to solve the controversial elements of the investigations and how much information should be released to the public.
“I want them to get together, they’ll sit in a room and hopefully work it out among themselves,” Trump said.