Mike Pompeo pours cold water on Trump's 'deep state' claims saying there isn't one at CIA or State

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed President Donald Trump's claims of government employees conspiring against him, saying he doesn't believe there are any 'deep state' forces at work at the CIA or in the State Department. 

Hours after Trump tweeted about a shadow campaign in the government working against him, Pompeo was asked point-blank if he believed it to be true.

'I haven't seen the comments from the president,' Pompeo said on Wednesday during a hearing on Capitol Hill. 'I don't believe there's a deep state at the State Department.'   

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed President Donald Trump's claims of government employees conspiring against him, saying he doesn't believe there any 'deep state' forces at work at the CIA or in the State Department.

President Trump has repeatedly argued there is a 'deep state' - a conspiracy of government employees - working against him, which some see as part of a plan to build a case that anti-Trump forces in the government have been working against Trump since before he took office and have continued to do so.

The president tweeted Wednesday morning to 'look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State,' a reference to the reports that a federal informant had reportedly infiltrated his campaign in 2016.

Trump has repeatedly argued there is a 'deep state' - a conspiracy of government employees - working against him, which some see as part of a plan to build a case that anti-Trump forces in the government have been working against Trump since before he took office and have continued to do so. 

'You know, this term 'deep state' has been thrown around,' Pompeo said during his appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 'I'll say this, the employees that worked for me at the CIA nearly uniformly were aimed at achieving the president's objectives and America's objectives.' 

Trump's finger pointing, however, could be seen as more toward the FBI and Justice Department. 

Pompeo, who served as CIA director before becoming secretary of state, was less emphatic in defense of his fellow agencies.

'There are always exceptions to every rule. I've never led an organization that didn't have bad actors,' he said. 'I don't think any government organization is exempt from having malfeasance as well.'  

It was a 'deep state' conspiracy theory that, in part, resulted in Trump demanding the Justice Department investigate whether or not his 2016 presidential campaign was infiltrated by the FBI.

As part of his concerns about a 'deep red' state working against him, President Trump demanded the Justice Department investigate whether his campaign was infiltrated. 

The department agreed to his request, saying it would expand the probe already under way by the agency's inspector general to examine the FBI's involvement in the Trump campaign.

The president has, in a sense, asked the investigators to investigate the investigators.

'What goes around, comes around!' he tweeted Wednesday morning.

Trump's demand came after multiple reports the FBI dispatched a confidential source to speak with some of his campaign advisers about the campaign's possible ties to Russia.

The president went on a Twitter bender on Sunday about the issue, charging the FBI planted 'at least one' spy in his campaign in order to derail his White House aspirations by ginning up a phony reason to criminally investigate him.

He has gone all-in with allegations, arguing repeatedly he is the victim of witch hunt.

Multiple reports noted Cambridge Professor Stefan Halper, who met with Trump's advisers in 2016,  could have been an FBI informant for its probe into the campaign's alleged collusion with Russian.

Halper met with Trump aides Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, and Sam Clovis during the campaign. 

James Clapper, who was the director of national intelligence from 2010 to 2017, said during an appearance on 'The View' on Tuesday that an informant was spying – but says it was on the Russians, and not from inside the campaign.

'No they were not. They were spying – a term I don't particularly like – on what the Russians were doing, trying to understand were the Russians infiltrating, trying to gain access, trying to gain leverage and influence, which is what they do,' Clapper said on the show. 

 A number of GOP lawmakers and US intelligence officials will meet Thursday to review classified information about the source.