A shocking ‘massacre’ of justice
SHOUTS FOR AN INDEPENDENT INQUIRY
video of Trump performing perverted sex acts with prostitutes at a Moscow hotel that it could use to blackmail him. Trump blasted the dossier as “fake news.”
The President-elect’s transition team’s response to the January Russia sanctions led to the first casualty of the Trump administration: national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Flynn resigned weeks into his job after having denied he discussed the sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak .
The call was caught on surveillance, and acting Attorney General Sally Yates told the Trump administration Flynn had lied about the conversation in January, potentially exposing himself to Russian blackmail. The White House kept Flynn on the job for weeks until The Washington Post reported that he’d lied to Vice President Pence. Yates revealed her attempts to warn the White House in a Senate hearing Monday, just a day before Comey’s firing.
Beyond the FBI and Intelligence Committee inquiries, Flynn also faces a House Oversight Committee investigation over the tens of thousands of dollars he received from Russian state-backed broadcaster RT for going to a December 2015 Moscow conference where he sat next to Putin at dinner.
His calls with the Russian ambassador brought Kislyak’s contacts with other Trump administration officials into focus, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying he would recuse himself from the Kremlin-focused investigation because he had also met with the envoy. DEMOCRATS blasted President Trump’s abrupt decision to fire the FBI director who’s been investigating his campaign’s ties to Russia as “Nixonian” — and demanded a special prosecutor to investigate Trump ties to the Kremlin.
“Why did it happen today?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said of James Comey’s firing, which the White House said was based on his well-known — and months-old — handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
“We know the FBI has been looking into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians, a very serous offense. Were those investigations getting too close to home for the President?”
“The only way the American people can have faith in this investigation is for it to be led by a fearless independent special prosecutor,” Schumer (photo) added.
Rep. John Conyers (DMich.), the ranking member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, said the White House’s actions “reek of a coverup.”
“Today’s action by President Trump completely obliterates any semblance of an independent investigation into Russian efforts to influence our election, and places our nation on the verge of a constitutional crisis. There is little doubt that the President’s actions harken our nation back to Watergate and the ‘Saturday Night Massacre,’ ” Conyers said. “We must have an independent, nonpartisan commission to investigate both Russian interference in the U.S. election and allegations of collusion between the government of Vladimir Putin and the Trump campaign.”
Comey’s firing was based on a recommendation from Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) took a jab at the attorney general, who had recused himself from the Russia investigation in March.
“Comey firing recommended by Sessions. I thought he had recused himself from Russia investigation!” Kaine said.
Sessions stepped aside from the Russia probe after it was revealed he had failed to disclose meetings with the Russian ambassador at his confirmation hearing.