Historian tells CNN: 'Besieged' Trump must feel like this is 'the beginning of the end'
Historian Douglas Brinkley (Photo: Screen capture)

Rice University history professor Douglas Brinkley said Friday that President Donald Trump must feel "besieged" as former FBI James Comey prepares for a media tour to promote his new book.


"This is about the Trump White House at war with the FBI," he said during an appearance on CNN. "And the FBI is a bureaucracy and it's a culture and they feel that Donald Trump is unethical, that there are a lot of laws that are being circumvented -- potentially broken -- and, you know, there is no coincidence that Cohen is getting raided and... is going to be criminally investigated."

"Comey leaked these excerpts in a very coordinated fashion," Brinkley continued. "If you're Donald Trump right now, you're besieged. You really have to feel like it could be the beginning of the end. Lord knows what Cohen has in his documents and maybe even tape recordings."

The FBI raided the office and personal residence of Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen this week. Trump was outraged by the raid, in which FBI agents reportedly seized documents related to a number of potential investigations.

CNN crime reporter Shimon Prokupecz said the FBI raided Cohen because they feared he would destroy documents. "That's a crime in and of itself," he noted.

"Cohen was under surveillance already by the FBI. They had covert surveillance on him, of his e-mails where they found some indications that his only client was the president, Donald Trump."

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