New Leaks rock White House
TRUMP TOLD RUSSIANS FBI BOSS WAS A ‘NUT JOB’
The president’s plane had barely taken off for his first foreign trip when multiple political storms slammed into it Friday: One report in the New York Times, one in the Washington Post, another on CNN, and a press release from James Comey pointed at severe turbulence ahead for Donald Trump.
Things have become bad enough that White House lawyers have begun researching impeachment procedures, CNN reported. It was an apparent effort to prepare for the still-distant possibility they will need to defend the president from a move to oust him.
Air Force One had just left for a nine-day trip when trouble struck.
It started at 3 p.m. when the Times published its latest scoop: the president told Russians in an Oval Office meeting that the former FBI director, Comey, was a “nut job”; that he’d felt pressure over the Russia affair; and firing Comey eased that pressure.
A Democratic member of Congress, Ted Lieu, drew an instant conclusion about the implications, tweeting: “This. Is. Obstruction. Of. Justice.”
Spokesman Sean Spicer did not dispute the facts of the report — only the interpretation.
He told the Times that Trump was not talking about easing judicial pressure, but political pressure. He said the post-election scrutiny was making it hard to work with Russia.
Now Americans will hear from Comey.
In another news bomblet dropped on Friday afternoon, the turfed top-cop announced he will testify in an open hearing of the Senate intelligence committee at a date to be announced later this month.
That comes as investigations into Russian election-meddling are mushrooming into a new area, according to members of Congress briefed Friday by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein: whether White House officials have engaged in a cover-up.
The investigation grew with the firing of the FBI director, according to lawmakers.
The firing was followed by assertions that Trump tried dissuading the FBI boss from pressing an investigation into his first national security adviser, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
The bad news didn’t end there.
A couple of minutes after 3 p.m., the Washington Post followed up with a potentially even more problematic story: It said a current White House official had become a significant person of interest in the Russia-releated investigation, as the probe reaches into the highest levels of government.
“The senior White House adviser under scrutiny by investigators is someone close to the president, according to (sources),” said the Post report, which added the FBI declined to comment.