Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced on Wednesday that his committee will investigate the circumstances surrounding the firing of James Comey as FBI director and whether there have been any “partisan” attempts to interfere with FBI probes.
Grassley announced the decision in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the committee’s ranking member, after she requested that the committee investigate those matters.
“You and I agree that the American people deserve a full accounting of attempts to meddle in both our democratic processes and the impartial administration of justice. The Judiciary Committee has an obligation to fully investigate any alleged improper partisan interference in law enforcement investigations. It is my view that fully investigating the facts, circumstances, and rationale for Mr. Comey’s removal will provide us the opportunity to do that on a cooperative, bipartisan basis,” Grassley wrote in the letter to Feinstein.
Grassley said that the committee will also look at former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server as part of the probe, another issue that Feinstein had said should be investigated. Grassley said that the committee should look at Lynch’s actions as part of the probe into Comey’s firing since the former FBI director discussed her handling of the email probe in his testimony last week. He also noted that the Trump administration noted Comey’s handling of the email probe in its initial explanation for Comey’s firing.
“The Administration has referenced both Mr. Comey’s handling of the Clinton investigation and Russia investigation as factors in his decision to fire Mr. Comey,” Grassley wrote.
Read Grassley’s letter:
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This is a good development. Feinstein threw Grassley a bone on including Lynch, but Lynch will be able to defend herself. Lynch and Comey had professional disagreements on the handling of the Clinton Emails. Lynch is a pro and handle these guys easily.
This probe will probably cause Mr. Beauregard Sessions to think about submitting his resignation letter sooner rather than later and plead the 5th to avoid dealing with Al Franken.
It seems to me that Burr has convinced enough of the Senate GOP caucus that Trump is toxic and that they should look to get additional distance from him. Burr is the guy to whom the GOP will turn in order to make its decision to make a move for Pence to succeed Trump.
In fact, given what Burr must know about the Flynn investigation and how Pence does not come up with clean hands, the right move for the GOP would be to focus on OOJ as a means to prepare the GOP base to accept Trump’s ouster. Like the Nixon resignation, the resignation of Trump would then be used as fuel to keep the GOP fire going into future elections.
Another phony investigation. Fake letter, fake news. And Trump probably thinks now that the Judiciary Committee is starting a phony witch hunt investigation, the Intelligence Committee must be finished with their witch hunt - and they should announce soon that they have totally exonerated him. Incoherent tweets to follow.
Yes, since he apparently can (barely) keep one thing in his mind at a time.
If he weren’t such a flaming bunghole, I’d almost feel sorry for the man. He is so far out of his depth, and this job is nothing like the fun ego trip he imagined it would be, and nothing in his life so far has prepared him to understand that … oh, what did they always say on the conservative side, back in a time long ago when the GOP styled itself the “party of personal responsibility”?
Oh yeah: Actions have consequences.
OBTW: 18 U.S. Code § 2381
Lady Justice wears a blindfold for good reason. Let the chips fall where they may.