U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is accusing the FBI of warning him last summer he may be the target of a Russian disinformation campaign as part of a “complete setup” to later leak information and discredit his probe into allegations against Hunter Biden.
When it was first reported last week that Johnson received the August 2020 briefing, the Oshkosh Republican called it “useless and unnecessary” because it was a generalized warning and he was fully aware of the dangers of Russian disinformation.
In an interview with Fox Business last night, Johnson said the briefing was a setup. He claimed he’d been set up in the past where he was briefed and then the information was leaked to the media.
“Now they’ve sprung the trap. They’ve done exactly what I thought they would do, is use that briefing to say that Senator Johnson was warned about Russian disinformation, and he proceeded anyway,” Johnson said. “I would ask anybody who takes a look at our report, where is there any Russian disinformation?”
Johnson made the remarks after being asked about national media retracting stories that reported Rudy Giuliani had been directly warned by the FBI he was the target of a Russian influence operation. The stories were corrected to say the FBI knew Giuliani was a target as part of an operation intended to damage Joe Biden’s campaign but never directly warned him about the concern.
He also questioned the tactics used in the pre-dawn arrest of Roger Stone, an associate of former President Trump.
“It is a deep state. American should be concerned about it,” Johnson said.
After Johnson tweeted out video of his remarks last night, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Town of Vermont, responded, “Coo coo for coco puffs.”
See video of Johnson’s remarks here.
See Pocan’s tweet.
