The Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday that it would not investigate whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice by interfering in the FBI probe of his associates’ possible collusion and coordination with Russia during the 2016 campaign.
“It’s never been part of our” investigation, committee Chair Richard Burr (R-NC) told CNN on Thursday, referring to obstruction of justice. Burr noted that “[o]bstruction is criminal — there’s a criminal aspect to that.” Ranking Member Mark Warner (D-VA) told the network: “The criminal piece of the investigation will be handled by the special counsel, but if we find facts we can turn this over to the special counsel.”
CNN noted that Burr and Warner had earlier met with special counsel Robert Mueller, who is reportedly investigating whether Trump obstructed an investigation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee chair, meanwhile, indicated Thursday morning in a letter to the committee’s ranking member that the committee would look into “improper partisan interference in law enforcement investigations.”
Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) had acknowledged Tuesday that the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), asked that the committee look into potential obstruction of justice in a letter to him on Friday.
No need for the Senate to act as long as Mueller is on the job.
No need. Let the big boys handle this one.
Big boys who can go before a grand jury and get indictments.
In other words, Mueller is doing a criminal investigation into obstruction and the Senate committee need not bother.
If Trump were to foolishly fire Mueller et al. the Senate should immediately hire him as a special prosecutor covering both obstruction and collusion.
I didn’t realize the OOJ charge was part of the Intel committee’s bailiwick anyway, so I was more surprised that it was on their radar than that they won’t be investigating it.