Obama told reporters in a private 2017 meeting he worried 'the most' about the politicization of law enforcement, the FBI, and the IRS during Trump's presidency

• Barack Obama had a conversation with reporters before he left office.

• The transcript was published by the news service.

• During his time in office, Obama was concerned that Trump would politicize law enforcement.

President Barack Obama told a group of reporters in an off-the-record conversation before he left office that one of the things he was most worried about was the politics of law enforcement agencies.

The transcript of a previously unreported conversation with a group of progressive journalists was published on Friday.

I think that if you politicized law enforcement, the attorney general's office, U.S. attorneys, FBI, prosecutorial functions, that's a danger.

The meeting that took place three days before Trump's inauguration was kept private because the reporters who were present for the meeting agreed on certain conditions.

The transcript of the interview was included in a number of documents released by the justice department.

Obama talked to reporters about his foresight for Trump. He said that the politicization of agencies like the FBI and the IRS created a chilling effect.

It's one thing if that's just words. If people begin to feel that the law enforcement mechanisms we have in place are not straight, they will play it straight. "That's dangerous, because the immense power is something that people have, I think in the popular imagination and certainly among the left, this idea of Big Brother and espionage and reading emails and writing emails."

The president told reporters that any investigation from the DOJ is frightening.

Basic law enforcement is what scares me the most. If the FBI comes and questions you and says it wants your stuff, and the Justice Department starts investigating you, even if you have nothing to hide, that's a scary thing to think about.

Reporters were urged to keep a close watch on the government's investigative bodies.

I would be a white person on the Justice Department. Obama told reporters that he would be paying attention to that. You need to be on top of that.

Business Insider has an article on it.