The former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI suggested the division likely has an ongoing investigation into President Donald Trump -- and that agents are cooperating with Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee.
MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace interviewed Frank Figliuzzi for analysis of Trump's latest legal moves as he attempts to keep his finances hidden from Congressional investigators.
"The question today, how far will Donald Trump go to keep his finances hidden? The answer may lie in a new lawsuit Donald Trump and his kids, Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric filed against banks subpoenaed by Congress, that's Deutsche Bank and Capital One," Wallace noted. "The lawsuit is designed to block those banks from responding in any way to the Congressional committee seeking information about Trump's finances."
Wallace said Trump's lawsuit was similar to her 7-year-old son telling her, "don't look here."
"The first thing I do when he leaves the room, is look where he tells me not to look and he's always busted," Wallace noted. "Donald Trump taking this step as president, 'don't look here, don't look here, Deutsche Bank and Capital One."
"Someone who has nothing to hide doesn't want to sit in the dark," Figliuzzi said. "The president is trying to stay in the dark and keep us in the dark."
"What I'm seeing, Nicolle, is a link between corruption and compromise. I think he's compromised by his own corruption," Figliuzzi explained. "He doesn't want this to get out."
The former counterintelligence chief believes his former colleagues are on the case.
"By the way, I see the link to counter-intelligence investigation that started this whole thing. If you're talking about compromise and finances, a portion of that may likely have been reserved for the counter-intelligence investigators at the FBI, because it's clearly not addressed in the Mueller case," he noted.
"And more evidence that there's a counter-intelligence compromise angle here, Nicolle, is that it's been reported today that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and the House Intelligence Committee have hired the former chief of the financial crime section for the FBI -- that's a major acquisition and tells me that it's the intelligence folks on the hill that are looking at the finances and we need to watch that closely," he explained.
"All the smoke is there, but we can't find the source of the fire," Figluzzi noted. "I think the source of the fire is investigated still by counter-intelligence division agents and with the hire announced today, former financial crimes section chief, Schiff and his team, I have to begin to wonder whether, indeed, there's been a sharing of information from the FBI's counterintelligence division with their overseers on Schiff's House and Senate intelligence committees and whether that's helping shape the direction those committees will go in."
"That's likely to have happened. That's the norm for the counter-intelligence division to brief the hill on significant developments in [counterintelligence] cases," he added. "I think that a partnership may be developing there."
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