Comey’s ‘firing’ probe underway
Deputy AG questioned
WASHINGTON, Sept 20, (Agencies): Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office has questioned Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as it probes the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
It is not clear exactly when the conversation took place, or how long it lasted, but Rosenstein is relevant to Mueller’s investigation because he authored a memorandum in May that the White House initially held up as justification for Comey’s firing.
The fact that Mueller’s team would speak with Rosenstein is not surprising given his direct involvement in Trump administration conversations that preceded the May 9 ouster and the evolving White House explanations of it.
But the questioning is nonetheless an indication of investigators’ continued interest in the circumstances surrounding Comey’s ouster, and whether it constituted an effort to obstruct an investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. Mueller’s team of investigators is expected to interview current and former White House aides in coming weeks as part of that investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.
The people who discussed the conversation with Rosenstein, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. Mueller’s team of investigators reports to Rosenstein, who oversaw the Justice Department’s Russia investigation following the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Rosenstein told The Associated Press in June that he would recuse from oversight of Mueller’s investigation if necessary and warranted, though he has not done so as of Tuesday and it was not clear when or if he intended to. Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel one week after Comey’s firing, and one day after it was revealed that Comey had alleged in an internal memo that President Donald Trump had asked him to end an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The White House initially explained Comey’s firing by saying Trump was acting on the recommendation of Rosenstein, who wrote a scathing memo about Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
But that narrative was muddled days later when Trump, in a television interview, said he would have fired Comey regardless of the Justice Department’s recommendation. It was revealed earlier this month that Trump and aide Stephen Miller had drafted, but not sent, an earlier memo that sought to justify Comey’s firing. That document is now in Mueller’s possession.
Rosenstein has said he stands by the memo and his assessment that Comey mishandled the Clinton email investigation by publicly announcing the FBI’s findings instead of ceding that authority to the Justice Department. But he has also said he did not intend for his memo to be used as a justification for firing.
In a June interview with the AP, Rosenstein said he understood his involvement in Comey’s firing could lead him to eventually step aside from overseeing Mueller’s work. “I’ve talked with Director Mueller about this,” Rosenstein said. “He’s going to make the appropriate decisions, and if anything that I did winds up being relevant to his investigation then, as Director Mueller and I discussed, if there’s a need from me to recuse I will.”
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee says Facebook should testify as part of its probe into Russian meddling in the US election, and that the social media giant “seems to have been less than forthcoming” with Congress.
Sen Richard Burr, R-NC, said Tuesday that committee members agreed the panel should hold a public hearing after it was revealed earlier this month that hundreds of phony Facebook accounts, likely run from Russia, spent about $100,000 on ads aimed at stirring up divisive issues such as gun control and race relations during the 2016 campaign. The panel is one of several in Congress probing Russian interference and any connections to President Donald Trump’s campaign.
“Facebook seems to have been less than forthcoming on potentially how they were used,” Burr said, adding that it’s “just a question of when, and potentially the scope of what that hearing would be.”
Facebook has briefed members of Congress and also provided the ads and other information to Robert Mueller, the special counsel in charge of the Russia investigation, the company said. In all, the accounts purchased some 3,000 ads between June 2015 and May 2017. While the ads didn’t specifically reference the election, a candidate or voting, they nevertheless allowed “divisive messages” to be amplified via the social media platform, the company’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, said in a statement Sept 7.
In addition to the 470 accounts that appeared to be run from Russia, Stamos said its investigators also discovered an additional $50,000 in spending via 2,200 ads that “might have originated in Russia,” even including ads purchased by accounts with IP addresses in the US but set to Russian in the language settings.
Lawmakers have said they want to know more about the content of the ads pushed out by the Russian-based Internet Research Agency and whether they targeted specific voters or locations in the United States.
Stands
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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen said Tuesday he had no ties to Russian interference in the 2016 election and saw “not a hint” that Trump himself was involved, labelling such allegations political.
But Cohen’s decision to go public with his statement ahead of a planned closed-door hearing by the Senate Intelligence Committee added to the rising tensions between investigators and the White House over the probe into possible collusion with Russian election meddling. Angered lawmakers cancelled the meeting — one of a series of closed interviews with people close to the president — and announced Cohen could expect to be questioned at a future open hearing now set for next month.
“We were disappointed that Mr Cohen decided to pre-empt today’s interview by releasing a public statement prior to his engagement with committee staff, in spite of the committee’s requests that he refrain from public comment,” said Senators Richard Burr and Mark Warner, committee chair and vice chair, respectively.