Trump claims ‘most’ FBI agents voted for him despite accusing agency of bias

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Former president Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed most agents at the federal law enforcement agency he routinely accuses of being biased against him cast their 2020 election votes for him nonetheless.

Speaking on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s eponymous nightly programme, Mr Trump was asked if he would release surveillance footage of the 8 August search of his Palm Beach, Florida home and office by FBI agents.

Mr Trump has previously said he’s been asked not to make the footage public out of concern for the agents safety, and he told the Fox host he did not “want to have anybody hurt” by releasing the footage against advice.

But he added that he believes “most of the people within the FBI” — outside of “top groups” — “probably voted for Trump”.

Mr Trump’s claim that rank-and-file agents are overwhelmingly supportive of him has been repeated by right-wing media figures in the weeks since the search of his home.

Initially, many prominent Republicans said the search was evidence that the FBI needs to be defunded or disbanded, but after criticism many revised their opinion and have since stated that only the top echelons of the agency are, in their opinion, politicised.