Feinstein toughens her stance on Trump
Once conciliatory senator sees case for obstruction
One day after President Trump posted a flurry of tweets defending Michael Flynn, a former administration official who lied to the FBI, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said evidence is mounting that the president obstructed investigations into aides’ communications with Russia that occurred before he took office.
The California Democrat, ranking minority member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, cited indictments obtained by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of four people connected to Trump as evidence of potential obstruction. She said in an interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the committee “has an investigation going as well, and it involves obstruction of justice, and I think what we’re beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice.”
She added, “I see it in the hyper-frenetic attitude of the White House, the comments every day, the continual tweets. And I see it most importantly in what happened
with the firing of (FBI) Director (James) Comey, and it is my belief that that is directly because he did not agree to ‘lift the cloud’ of the Russia investigation. That’s obstruction of justice.”
Feinstein’s comments came after Trump seemingly acknowledged that he had known that Flynn, his former national security adviser, lied to the FBI about communication he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the administration’s transition. When Flynn was fired in February, the White House explained that he had misrepresented the nature of his talks to Vice President Mike Pence.
In a tweet Saturday, Trump said that he “had to fire” Flynn because of the lies and that he has “pled guilty to those lies” — though he said Flynn’s actions were “lawful.” But the White House later backpedaled, with the president’s personal lawyer, John Dowd, saying he crafted the tweet. Regardless, the statement seemed to indicate Trump had always known about the conversations between Flynn and Kislyak.
“It was fascinating to see because it was a complete change all of a sudden,” said Peter Keane, dean of Golden Gate University’s School of Law. “Initially Trump said no, Flynn was fired because he had lied to the vice president. Now for some weird reason, Trump admitted he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI. But by doing that, it is an admission on his part that when he fired Flynn, he knew. I can see why Feinstein got motivated all of a sudden.”
The four indictments — of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates for money laundering, and former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and former national security adviser Flynn for lying to the FBI — indicate Trump might have obstructed justice, Feinstein said, because they lied about their actions before Trump took office.
Feinstein did not definitively state that Trump should be removed from office and said she wanted to complete the probe before drawing conclusions.
“I believe it’s time for us to finish our investigation, and I don’t want to bias any part of the investigation with premature thinking,” she said. “I think that’s very important.”
Feinstein did not respond to calls for further comment.
The fact that Feinstein, a moderate Democrat, would even raise the possibility of an obstruction investigation of Trump is significant, political analysts say. In August, she told a crowd at the Commonwealth Club that she hoped to cooperate with Trump, and that she believed he could be a
“good president” if he could learn and change.
Feinstein’s willingness to cooperate clearly isn’t the case anymore, said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
“She has, if anything, shown a conciliatory tone toward Trump. This is coming from a person who said she would try to work with Trump. If Feinstein says she is building an obstruction of justice case, then it’s really serious. Even she has crossed the threshold and realized there is absolutely no working with Trump.”
She added, “Even if Trump didn’t author that tweet, it still indicates that he knew,” Levinson said. “If he told his lawyer to write it, there’s an issue of whether he is giving up his attorney-client privilege. But it sounds like it was Trump. I know it sounds super minor, but he wrote ‘pled’ when the terminology is ‘pleaded.’ I don’t know many people who have taken the bar who would make that mistake.”
Trump’s presidency has been overshadowed by Mueller’s investigation into whether Russia meddled in the presidential election — and whether Trump knew the Kremlin was working to influence its outcome. Trump’s firing of Comey in May further inflamed suspicions.
Comey testified before Congress that the day after Flynn’s Feb. 13 dismissal, Trump had asked Comey to drop the investigation of Flynn. Comey refused to end the inquiry, and Trump fired him several months later.
On Sunday, Trump took to Twitter to deny that he had asked the former FBI director to end any investigations into Flynn’s conduct.
“I never asked Comey to stop investigating Flynn. Just more Fake News covering another Comey lie!” Trump tweeted.
White House officials did not respond to calls for comment.
Trump’s handling of the situation challenges long-held norms — like respecting the office of the president, no matter who holds it — for politicians like Feinstein, said political analyst Jim Ross.
“This is something that has never been done in American government and politics,” Ross said. “This is one of many norms he has blown through. I think Feinstein sees these things. In her mind, the jury is no longer out as to whether Trump will be a good president or not. It’s important to note that Trump has even lost the moderate Democrats. It shows how polarizing he is for the country.”
Harmeet Dhillon, a lawyer and Republican National Committeewoman, said that Feinstein’s investigation is a “frivolous political witch hunt,” and that there is no basis for it.
“I think Dianne, respectfully, is way out over her skis here,” Dhillon said. “The president terminated Flynn pretty soon into the administration. It wasn’t illegal. Now we have found Gen. Flynn has admitted a different lie. These are independent. I do not think there is any such basis for an investigation.”
Proving obstruction of justice is difficult, Keane said. Even if impeachment were the aim, it would require a majority vote in the House and twothirds vote for conviction in the Senate. Both are controlled by Republicans.
“Even though Feinstein is in the Senate and ultimately would be the judge to decide if Trump were impeached, she just doesn’t have the power to get it going,” Keane said. “Many people would feel that it is premature to do at this point. Many people would feel it’s better to let Mueller’s investigation play out.”
“It will be hard to see whether or not there is solid evidence of obstruction of justice. There’s a lot we don’t know yet.”