The ranking member of the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday described a New York Times report that President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to stop his investigation of ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn as “a smoking gun with a lot of dark smoke.”
In an interview, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD): “Do you see that potentially as an obstruction of justice?”
“Yes I do, simple as that,” Cummings said. “I think the President has been — has had basically — he hasn’t had to answer to anybody, really, up to now. And now he stepped over the line. Clearly we’ve got a smoking gun with a lot of dark smoke. And it is very, very unfortunate and I think it’s a sad day for our country.”
Blitzer asked if the report described an incident that was “potentially impeachable, if it’s an obstruction of justice?”
“I think we’re going to have to look into it a little bit further, Wolf. But I would think so,” Cummings said.
He added that his committee had requested records from the White House on Flynn’s hiring and firing, among other issues.
“Now this perhaps provides us with an answer as to why we haven’t been able to get one single syllable from the White House,” he said.
