FBI’s Donald Trump Investigation Named After Rolling Stones Lyric
Perhaps an acknowledgement of the storm that it would cause, the FBI gave the investigation into the possibility of Russian interference in the election of Donald Trump the code name of "Crossfire Hurricane."
The phrase was first coined in the opening line of the Rolling Stones' 1968 single "Jumpin' Jack Flash": "I was born in a crossfire hurricane."
The news was reported by The New York Times in a lengthy piece that details the origins of the ongoing investigation. It began 100 days before the election, and the FBI used many of the same people who, a few days earlier, had finished investigating Hilary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server for government business.
To date, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has indicted four of Trump's campaign advisers -- George Papadopolous, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn -- as well as a California man named Richard Pinedo on charges of false statements, conspiring against the U.S., identity fraud and money laundering.
All the men except Manafort have pleaded guilty.
Released as a single in 1968, "Jumpin' Jack Flash" brought the Rolling Stones out of their brief dalliance with psychedelic music on Their Satanic Majesties Request. The song's title was inspired by Jack Dyer, Keith Richards' gardener whom Richards had dubbed "Jumpin' Jack." The song reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Richards recently confirmed that he objected to Trump giving himself top billing as the promoter of a Stones concert in Atlantic City in 1989 by showing promoter Michael Cohl a knife. "I got out my trusty blade, stuck it in the table and said, 'You have to get rid of this man,'" he said. "Now America has to get rid of him. Don't say I didn't warn you!"