How solid is the ground
Department to open an internal investigation into whether the FBI placed an informant into his 2016 presidential campaign to spy on him. By Sunday night, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had made clear that Justice would investigate whether any wrongdoing was found in the use of the informant, who, according to CNN sources, was never embedded in the campaign.
How solid is the ground Trump is treading on? What's the difference between a spy and an informant? And how does the FBI go about getting approval for an informant? I asked former FBI special agent Josh Campbell, a CNN contributor, all of these questions -- and more!
His answers, lightly edited for flow, are below.
Cillizza: Let's start basic. Why does the FBI use informants?
Campbell: Informants often serve as the backbone of important investigations, because they take the FBI into places they could never go on their own. If a special agent running a lawfully predicated criminal or counterintelligence investigation wants to learn more about what the targets of the investigation are up to, a logical investigative tool would be the use of an informant who could report back on the inner workings of a network.
While it would be difficult for an FBI special agent to walk into Trump Tower and glean on his or her own whether Russians were attempting to infiltrate the Trump campaign, a confidential informant -- with "placement" and "access," to use the terms of the trade -- could be extremely useful in helping mitigate potential threats to US national security.
How solid is the ground Trump is treading on? What's the difference between a spy and an informant? And how does the FBI go about getting approval for an informant? I asked former FBI special agent Josh Campbell, a CNN contributor, all of these questions -- and more!
His answers, lightly edited for flow, are below.
Cillizza: Let's start basic. Why does the FBI use informants?
Campbell: Informants often serve as the backbone of important investigations, because they take the FBI into places they could never go on their own. If a special agent running a lawfully predicated criminal or counterintelligence investigation wants to learn more about what the targets of the investigation are up to, a logical investigative tool would be the use of an informant who could report back on the inner workings of a network.
While it would be difficult for an FBI special agent to walk into Trump Tower and glean on his or her own whether Russians were attempting to infiltrate the Trump campaign, a confidential informant -- with "placement" and "access," to use the terms of the trade -- could be extremely useful in helping mitigate potential threats to US national security.
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