Walls close in on a White House in ‘chaos’
Trump’s Russia troubles deepen as barrage of new revelations suggests firing of FBI boss was personal
WASHINGTON— A series of revelations has undercut Donald Trump’s implausible explanation for his firing of FBI Director James Comey, suggesting the president was more interested in ridding himself of the person investigating his campaign’s ties to Russia than standing up for government policy.
The cascade of media stories Wednesday heightened the furor that threatens to derail Trump’s agenda, his credibility and the U.S. government as a whole.
And his problems deepened when the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena to his fired former national se- curity adviser, Michael Flynn, for Russiarelated documents.
Trump’s team belatedly scrambled to try to contain the fallout from Tuesday’s stunning termination that some said they did not expect to cause such an uproar.
Their unpreparedness embarrassingly evident on Tuesday night — press secretary Sean Spicer resorted to hiding in bushes to try to avoid reporters — one aide told Politico on Wednesday that the situation was “total and complete chaos, even by our standards.”
Trump fought for control of the narrative in his usual way. As Democrats and historians warned in lofty tones that the president was threatening the very rule of law, Trump responded with a volley of tweets about “phoney hypocrites” and “fake news.” The news was bad for him.
In the most noteworthy of the revelations, the New York Times, Washington Post and others reported Wednesday that Comey had requested additional resources for the Russia investigation just last week. The Times reported later that Trump was angry about that investigation and “enraged” by Comey’s testimony about him last week in Congress.
That wasn’t all. The McClatchy news service reported that Trump himself had requested the supposedly independent Department of Justice memo on which the ouster was supposedly based.
“This scandal is going to go on.” SEN. JOHN MCCAIN ON TRUMP TIES TO RUSSIA
And CNN anchor Jake Tapper cited a “source close to Comey” as saying he was dismissed because he would not pledge personal loyalty to Trump and because the Russia probe was “accelerating.” Though the news did not come close to proving Trump critics’ theory that he is trying to hide something from the FBI probe into his campaign’s possible collusion with Russian interference in the presidential election, it strongly suggested that his administration’s central rationale for Comey’s dismissal — that he acted out of dismay at Comey’s improper treatment of Hillary Clinton last year — was a mere pretext for a decision that was personal rather than principled.
In a briefing replete with dubious spin, Trump spokesperson Sarah Sanders said the president had been thinking of firing Comey since “the day he was elected” — but that he acted now because of an independent recommendation from Department of Justice officials who happened to be at the White House on “other business” on Monday.
“The topic came up,” she said, “and they asked to speak with the president, and that’s how it moved forward.” She joined Trump in professing bewilderment that Democrats who had blasted Comey for his handling of the Clinton investigation were now blasting him for firing Comey.
“The Democrats have said some of the worst things about James Comey, including the fact that he should be fired, but now they play so sad!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“Comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike. When things calm down, they will be thanking me!”
Though dozens of congressional Republicans expressed at least tepid concern, the party banded together Wednesday to oppose Democratic calls for a special prosecutor to handle the Russia probe. Chuck Grassley, chairperson of the Senate Judiciary Committee, advised people likening Trump to Richard Nixon to “suck it up and move on.”
But there were early signs that the controversy might hinder the Republican agenda in Congress, at least in the short term. Democrats, demanding a special prosecutor, used their procedural powers to delay all Senate committee meetings.
“Nothing less is at stake than the American people’s faith in our criminal justice system and the integrity of the executive branch of our government,” said Democratic Senate lead- er Chuck Schumer, who argued that the failure of the Justice Department to name a prosecutor would show that Trump’s decision was “part of a coverup.”
Even some Republicans warned of further damage to come. Sen. Bob Corker, chairperson of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump aides understand “that they created a really difficult situation for themselves.” House Oversight Committee chairperson Jason Chaffetz asked the inspector general overseeing the Department of Justice to probe the firing.
“This scandal is going to go on. I’ve seen it before,” Sen. John McCain said Tuesday night in comments reported by the Post. “This is a centipede. I guarantee you there will be more shoes to drop, I can just guarantee it. There’s just too much information that we don’t have that will be coming out.”
As if egging on the comparisons to the Watergate scandal, he posed for photos in the Oval Office with Nixon security adviser Henry Kissinger. Earlier in the day, as if to mock the suggestion that there was anything amiss in his dealings with Russia, he met with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded last year that Russian state hackers stole and leaked information from the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party to help Trump get elected. Comey told Congress this year that the FBI’s investigation into the Russian disruption included a probe of “the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia.”
In a letter to FBI associates, Comey said, “I have long believed that a president can fire an FBI director for any reason, or no reason at all. I’m not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed. I hope you won’t either.”