Chuck Grassley's Alternative Trump-Russia Investigation. In this one, the president is the victim.
How a Top Senate Republican Is Creating an Alternative Trump-Russia Investigation
In this one, the president is the victim.
DAN FRIEDMAN JUL. 18, 2017 7:23 AM
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/how-chuck-grassley-is-creating-an-alternative-trump-russia-investigation/
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week on Christopher Wrays nomination to head the FBI, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) quickly brought up President Donald Trumps firing of former FBI Director James Comey. But the committee chairman didnt fault Trump for Comeys dismissal. Rather, Grassley defended Trumps right to let him go. There are no restrictions on the ability of any president to fire any director, he said in his opening statement.
Grassleys comment was significant because he heads what could wind up being the most consequential of the congressional investigations related to the Trump-Russia scandal: a probe of Trumps firing of Comey and collusion between the Trump camp and Russia. The inquiry presumably will examine whether the president obstructed justice by axing the official leading the FBIs investigation of interactions between the Trump camp and Russia and its related probe of Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security adviser. The House and Senate intelligence committees are examining various aspects of the Trump-Russia controversy, and the FBIs investigation is now proceeding under the leadership of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who may also be examining Trumps dumping of Comey.
But the Judiciary Committee, unlike these other outfits, operates mostly in public, and, more important, it can actively pursue the case of Comeys firingand Trumps possible obstruction of justicewhether or not that episode involved any violations of the law.
The intensity and extent of the committees investigation of the Comey firing and other aspects of the Russia scandal depend on Grassley. And so far it looks like the 83-year-old Iowan is more interested in developing a counter-narrative to the Trump-Russia storyline by conducting a series of alternative investigations into tangential subjects. These inquiries seem designed to minimize the culpability of Trump and his aides and to deflect attention from the core issues of the controversy.