The question of when and with what purpose Special Counsel Robert Mueller would hold the president’s feet to the fire has loomed over the Trump/Russia probe, and few details have been forthcoming. Two sources close to the investigation leaked to reporters on Tuesday what direction that interrogation will take.
Two key firings by President Trump – those of former FBI Director James Comey and Trump’s former national security adviser, the retired Gen. Michael Flynn – provide the basis for the first of Mueller’s many questions delving into the allegations that President Trump obstructed justice during his initial days in office.
According to The Washington Post:
‘Within the past two weeks, the special counsel’s office has indicated to the White House that the two central subjects that investigators wish to discuss with the president are the departures of Flynn and Comey and the events surrounding their firings.
‘Flynn resigned last February after The Washington Post reported that he misled Vice President Pence and other administration officials about his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States…
‘Trump fired Comey in May, several days after the then-FBI director told Congress he could not comment on whether there was evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Comey later testified that the president had asked him several months earlier whether he could see a way to “letting Flynn go.”’
Both firings raised questions about obstruction of justice when they were announced. Trump’s requests that Comey back off the investigation into Michael Flynn led to suspicions that Trump may not only have been trying to protect his friend, but trying to protect himself due to knowledge that Flynn may have of possible wrongdoing by Trump and/or his campaign staff, as well. His subsequent firing of Comey when the investigation continued going forward only strengthened those suspicions.
Trump’s firing of Flynn was only questionable because of its delay; after all, Sally Yates warned White House counsel Don McGahn on January 26, 2017 that Flynn could potentially be blackmailed by Russia over compromising information they had on him. However, the president did not fire his national security adviser – a national security adviser compromised by a hostile foreign government – until February 13, 2017, nearly three weeks later.
Trump raised even more alarm bells in regards to his firing on Gen. Flynn nearly ten months later in December, 2017, in a tweet, listing a new reason for the decision to oust Flynn than he had offered at the time.
When Flynn’s firing was announced, the reason given was that he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence. Trump’s tweet suggests he also fired him because he lied to the FBI (a federal crime), and Trump asked Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn the day after he fired him. If he made that request of Comey knowing that Flynn had committed a crime, that’s obstruction of justice.
Trump later backtracked and insisted it was his lawyer who wrote the admission to obstruction of justice in the form of a tweet, but with a president that utterly incapable of sticking to a narrative and telling the truth even to save his own skin now facing a questioning by Mueller, impeachment seems all but impossible.
Featured image via Getty/Ann Hesenfelt
