WASHINGTON—FBI Director James Comey and other bureau leaders were “fired up” about allegations that Donald Trump’s business was secretly communicating with a Russian bank, according to internal FBI messages revealed in court on May 23.
“People on the 7th floor to include director are fired up about this server,” Joseph Pientka, an agent based in Washington, told Curtis Heide, a colleague working from the bureau’s Chicago office, in a message dated Sept. 21, 2016.
“Reachout [sic] and put tools on,” Heide added. “Its [sic] not an option—we must do it.”
Comey was the bureau’s director at the time the message was sent, which was just days after Michael Sussmann, a lawyer representing the campaign of Hillary Clinton—Trump’s rival for the presidency—met with an FBI lawyer and handed information he alleged showed a secret backchannel between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank….