--- title: John McCain Criticizes Donald Trump's Attacks on FBI description: Senator John McCain accused President Trump of "doing Putin's job for him" after Trump accused the Justice Department of bias. canonical: https://time.com/5130826/john-mccain-donald-trump-vladimir-putin-fbi/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-02T17:46:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:07:35.050Z article:section: Politics og:title: John McCain Says Trump Is 'Doing Putin's Job for Him' by Attacking the FBI og:description: "The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests" og:url: https://time.com/5130826/john-mccain-donald-trump-vladimir-putin-fbi/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt867221cac23dacb3/6988f668db2987121925e37c/senator-john-mccain-life-pictures-obama-bush-republican-16.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3040 og:image:height: 1710 og:image:alt: John McCain during a tour of TPQ Foods, Phoenix, USA - 01 Nov 2016 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John McCain Says Trump Is 'Doing Putin's Job for Him' by Attacking the FBI twitter:description: "The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt867221cac23dacb3/6988f668db2987121925e37c/senator-john-mccain-life-pictures-obama-bush-republican-16.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John McCain Says Trump Is 'Doing Putin's Job for Him' by Attacking the FBI > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Feb 2, 2018 5:46 PM UTC  Sen. John McCain tours TPQ Foods, in Phoenix on Nov 1, 2016. Sen. John McCain tours TPQ Foods, in Phoenix on Nov 1, 2016. Matt York—AP/REX/Shutterstock by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Feb 2, 2018 5:46 PM UTC Sen. John McCain accused President Donald Trump of “doing Putin’s job for him” Friday morning after [Trump accused leadership](http://time.com/5130167/donald-trump-tweet-nunes-memo/?xid=homepage) of the Justice Department and FBI of anti-Republican bias. After Trump tweeted that [investigators](http://time.com/5130009/james-comey-fbi-nunes-memo/) looking into Russian involvement in the 2016 election have “politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans,” McCain released a statement arguing that Trump is dividing Americans from one another, which is [what Russia wants](http://time.com/magazine/us/4783906/may-29th-2017-vol-189-no-20-u-s/). > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/959389424806191104) The statement does not reference the GOP memo criticizing the FBI investigation of [Carter Page](http://time.com/5128614/carter-page-gop-memo-fisa-warrant/), but it came just as House Republicans [released](http://time.com/5130774/donald-trump-declassifies-nunes-memo/) the memo with White House permission. Read the Arizona Republican’s response in full: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5130826/john-mccain-donald-trump-vladimir-putin-fbi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5130826/john-mccain-donald-trump-vladimir-putin-fbi/"},"headline":"John McCain Says Trump Is 'Doing Putin's Job for Him' by Attacking the FBI","datePublished":"2018-02-02T17:46:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:07:35.050Z","description":"Senator John McCain accused President Trump of \"doing Putin's job for him\" after Trump accused the Justice Department of bias.","url":"https://time.com/5130826/john-mccain-donald-trump-vladimir-putin-fbi/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Congress","White House","FBI","Justice Department","Department of Justice","John McCain","justice","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt867221cac23dacb3/6988f668db2987121925e37c/senator-john-mccain-life-pictures-obama-bush-republican-16.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt867221cac23dacb3/6988f668db2987121925e37c/senator-john-mccain-life-pictures-obama-bush-republican-16.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"John McCain during a tour of TPQ Foods, Phoenix, USA - 01 Nov 2016","caption":"John McCain during a tour of TPQ Foods, Phoenix, USA - 01 Nov 2016","creditText":"Matt York—AP/REX/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5130826/john-mccain-donald-trump-vladimir-putin-fbi/","name":"John McCain Says Trump Is 'Doing Putin's Job for Him' by Attacking the FBI"}}]}] ```