Sen. Feinstein Says Senate Panel Building Obstruction Case Against Donald Trump
Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) said the panel probing Russian election meddling is putting together a possible obstruction of justice case against President Donald Trump.
Making the rounds on the Sunday morning talk circuit, the leading Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said the case against Trump has become clearer in the wake of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.
“The panel has an investigation going on 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 told “Meet the Press.”
After Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to argue he “had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI,” critics rushed to charge Trump had essentially admitted to obstruction of justice by admitting he tried to stall the investigation while knowing that Flynn had lied to the FBI.
The Trump administration later claimed the tweet was not written by Trump, but rather attorney John Dowd.
Feinstein said she believes that sequence of events may have influenced Trump’s decision to terminate FBI Director James Comey last May.
“I see it most importantly in what happened with the firing of Director Comey, and it is my belief that that is directly because he did not agree to ‘lift the cloud’ of the Russia investigation,” she said. “That’s obstruction of justice.”
In a memo he wrote back then, Comey noted that Trump asked him to consider “letting this go, letting Flynn go.”
Trump now disputes that contention, insisting that he “never asked Comey to stop investigating Flynn.”
Early Sunday morning, Trump added in a tweet “just more fake news covering another Comey lie.”
The tweet was just the start of an avalanche of them fired off by Trump, including one where he accused Comey of poor leadership as the head of the FBI, in particular his handling of the Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server case.
“After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters – worst in History! But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness,” he tweeted.
Despite all Trump’s finger-pointing, several lawmakers have indicated they take Comey’s side of the story at face value.
“I believe FBI Director Comey,” who also testified about the discussion, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told CNN’S “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Former Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican from Michigan, also added in a segment with the network that he had no reason to doubt Comey’s version of the story and found his testimony to be totally “credible.”
