Trump under criminal investigation
2 posters
Page 1 of 1
Trump under criminal investigation
The Washington Post wrote:Report: Trump Is Under Investigation for Obstruction of Justice
The Washington Post reports the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election has widened to include a closer look at the president’s actions.
Matt Ford
By firing James Comey, President Trump has now provoked the criminal investigation he insisted didn’t exist when he fired him. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly investigating whether Trump tried to obstruct justice by firing the former FBI director last month, placing the Trump administration in a legally perilous situation less than six months into office.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Mueller has quietly reached out to multiple top intelligence officials to set up interviews as part of his sprawling probe into both Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. That includes examining any wrongdoing by Americans that accompanied it, as well as any efforts to obstruct or curtail the federal investigation itself.
The exact timeline for when the investigation expanded to include obstruction claims against the president is unclear. The Post said federal investigators began their inquiry “days after” Trump’s abrupt dismissal of Comey on May 9. The director’s ouster sparked a political firestorm for the White House, culminating a fortnight later in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s appointment of Mueller as special counsel.
The White House itself no longer answers questions about the probe, referring reporters to the president’s outside counsel, Marc Kasowitz. “The FBI leak of information regarding the president is outrageous, inexcusable and illegal,” Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Kasowitz, told the Post.
Wednesday’s revelation is a severe blow to the White House, after a week in which it has issued strenuous claims that Trump himself is not the subject of a criminal investigation. Top administration officials frequently touted Comey’s testimony on June 8 that the president had not been under investigation for colluding with Moscow to damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid at the time Trump fired Comey.
But Trump, whose anger at Comey for refusing to declare publicly that the president was not under investigation reportedly contributed to his decision to fire him, has now brought about precisely such a criminal probe by dismissing him. A broad cross-section of the American legal community warned that his actions towards Comey could reach the threshold of obstruction of justice, a federal crime cited in the impeachment efforts against both Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. (Nixon resigned before the House could vote on articles of impeachment; Clinton was impeached for obstruction but not convicted of it.)
According to the Post, Mueller has reached out to NSA Director Mike Rogers, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, and former NSA Deputy Director Richard Ledgett to voluntarily interview them as part of the obstruction inquiry. All three men have agreed, the Post said. It’s unclear whether Mueller made his request before Coats and Rogers testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week. At that open hearing, both men declined to answer multiple questions from senators about their interactions with the president. The hearing came one day after the Post reported Trump had asked Coats and Rogers in March to intervene with then-director Comey to halt the Russia investigation.
Mueller has also asked the NSA for any documents about its interactions with the president over the Russia investigation, The New York Times reported Wednesday night. Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mueller has requested to interview Rick Ledgett, the NSA’s recently retired deputy director. Ledgett reportedly wrote a memo documenting a phone call between Admiral Mike Rogers, the NSA’s director, and the president. Trump questioned the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia had interfered with the election, and tried to persuade Rogers to say there was no evidence of collusion between the campaign and Russia, the Journal reported.
Trump could theoretically invoke executive privilege to try to block the release of documents like that memorandum, but would be unlikely to find a sympathetic judge: The U.S. Supreme Court blocked Nixon from using the privilege to withhold evidence in a criminal investigation in U.S. v. Nixon in 1974. The Times also reported Mueller is probing the possibility of money laundering by Trump’s associates, on the theory that any collusion with Russian officials might have involved pay-offs, which would then have needed to be concealed.
It’s unclear how the revelation of Mueller’s expanded investigation will affect the long-term survival of his inquiry. Trump considered ousting the special counsel in recent weeks, only to be talked out of it by virtually the entire White House staff. Under Justice Department rules, Trump cannot fire Mueller directly—that power is held by Rosenstein as acting attorney general. (Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the investigation in March.) Rosenstein assured Congress at a hearing on Tuesday that Mueller has “full independence” and that he would not fire him without “good cause,” which DOJ rules narrowly define as “misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or … violation of departmental policies.”
If Trump nonetheless moved ahead and ordered Rosenstein to fire Mueller, it would almost certainly spark a political crisis and could present serious challenges to the American rule of law: No president has fired a special prosecutor investigating his own conduct since Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre in 1974 during the nadir of the Watergate crisis.
The noose tightens. It shouldn't be a surprise. Trump has twice admitted that he obstructed justice. His comment that the Comey testimony was vindication, elicited comments from practiced lawyers: give it time, boy, give it time.
Original Quill- Forum Detective ????♀️
- Posts : 37540
Join date : 2013-12-19
Age : 59
Location : Northern California
Re: Trump under criminal investigation
It was the big seven-one for him yesterday, too! What a wonderful birthday present.
Re: Trump under criminal investigation
At least he confirmed it.
Original Quill- Forum Detective ????♀️
- Posts : 37540
Join date : 2013-12-19
Age : 59
Location : Northern California
Similar topics
» Evidence 'more than circumstantial' that Trump team colluded with Russia, says Congressman leading investigation
» Dennis Skinner attacks Theresa May for 'squalid' backing of Tory MPs under criminal investigation for election fraud
» Americans who view blacks as "criminal," "less intelligent," "lazy" and "violent" choose Trump
» Trump asked FBI director to drop investigation, which could be obstruction of justice
» Majority of Americans now support Trump impeachment investigation, poll finds
» Dennis Skinner attacks Theresa May for 'squalid' backing of Tory MPs under criminal investigation for election fraud
» Americans who view blacks as "criminal," "less intelligent," "lazy" and "violent" choose Trump
» Trump asked FBI director to drop investigation, which could be obstruction of justice
» Majority of Americans now support Trump impeachment investigation, poll finds
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
Sat Mar 18, 2023 12:28 pm by Ben Reilly
» TOTAL MADNESS Great British Railway Journeys among shows flagged by counter terror scheme ‘for encouraging far-right sympathies
Wed Feb 22, 2023 5:14 pm by Tommy Monk
» Interesting COVID figures
Tue Feb 21, 2023 5:00 am by Tommy Monk
» HAPPY CHRISTMAS.
Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:33 pm by Tommy Monk
» The Fight Over Climate Change is Over (The Greenies Won!)
Thu Dec 15, 2022 3:59 pm by Tommy Monk
» Trump supporter murders wife, kills family dog, shoots daughter
Mon Dec 12, 2022 1:21 am by 'Wolfie
» Quill
Thu Oct 20, 2022 10:28 pm by Tommy Monk
» Algerian Woman under investigation for torture and murder of French girl, 12, whose body was found in plastic case in Paris
Thu Oct 20, 2022 10:04 pm by Tommy Monk
» Wind turbines cool down the Earth (edited with better video link)
Sun Oct 16, 2022 9:19 am by Ben Reilly
» Saying goodbye to our Queen.
Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:02 pm by Maddog
» PHEW.
Sat Sep 17, 2022 6:33 pm by Syl
» And here's some more enrichment...
Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:46 pm by Ben Reilly
» John F Kennedy Assassination
Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:40 pm by Ben Reilly
» Where is everyone lately...?
Thu Sep 15, 2022 3:33 pm by Ben Reilly
» London violence over the weekend...
Mon Sep 05, 2022 2:19 pm by Tommy Monk
» Why should anyone believe anything that Mo Farah says...!?
Wed Jul 13, 2022 1:44 am by Tommy Monk
» Liverpool Labour defends mayor role poll after turnout was only 3% and they say they will push ahead with the option that was least preferred!!!
Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:11 pm by Tommy Monk
» Labour leader Keir Stammer can't answer the simple question of whether a woman has a penis or not...
Mon Jul 11, 2022 3:58 am by Tommy Monk
» More evidence of remoaners still trying to overturn Brexit... and this is a conservative MP who should be drummed out of the party and out of parliament!
Sun Jul 10, 2022 10:50 pm by Tommy Monk
» R Kelly 30 years, Ghislaine Maxwell 20 years... but here in UK...
Fri Jul 08, 2022 5:31 pm by Original Quill