Graham: FBI showed ‘double standard’ with briefing Hillary on campaign investigation but not Trump

Lindsey Graham said Sunday that the FBI and Justice Department exhibited a ‘double standard’ in the 2016 presidential race in how it went about informing Hillary Clinton about an investigation into foreign influence in her campaign but did not do the same for Donald Trump.

The South Carolina senator told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on Sunday morning that FBI leadership shot down a request for a FISA warrant until Clinton was briefed on the matter.

‘They never did to Trump,’ Graham said during his interview on ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’ ‘As a matter of fact, not only did they not tell Trump, they used a generic briefing to spy on Trump.’

He pointed to a newly released redacted document detailing an October meeting where FBI personnel briefed the Clinton campaign so they were able to fix the issue without a FISA warrant ever being needed. 

Senator Lindsey Graham said Sunday that the FBI exhibited the ‘ultimate double standard’ by informing Hillary Clinton of an investigation into foreign influence in her campaign but not doing the same for Donald Trump 

‘The purpose of the meeting was to provide a classified defensive briefing for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign, as summarized below,’ the redacted document reads. ‘[Redacted/ Clinton’s counsel] were advised the FBI has information that the [redacted/ foreign government] is attempting to influence Hillary Clinton through lobbying efforts and campaign contributions.’ 

Graham did not reveal to Bartiromo which foreign government wanted to assist Clinton in getting elected in 2016.

Instead of taking the same steps in informing the Trump campaign of an investigation, the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane operation and pursued a number of FISA warrants against people working with the then-candidate’s campaign.

‘There was a clear double standard by the Department of Justice and FBI when it came to the Trump and Clinton campaigns in 2016,’ the Judiciary chairman tweeted Sunday morning.

‘These are the newest declassified documents showing the differences between treatment of the Clinton and Trump campaigns,’ he continued in a second tweet with a link to the declassified, yet redacted, documents.

In a statement released earlier Sunday morning, Graham said: ‘The FBI did the right thing by briefing Clinton and failed to do the right thing by never specifically briefing President Trump about their concerns.’

Codename Crossfire Hurricane was the FBI counterintelligence investigation into links between Trump and the Kremlin – specifically those working within his campaign like Michael Flynn, Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.