{"id":33324,"date":"2017-05-17T07:44:55","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T07:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=33324"},"modified":"2017-05-17T07:44:55","modified_gmt":"2017-05-17T07:44:55","slug":"sources-trump-asked-comey-to-end-investigation-of-michael-flynn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=33324","title":{"rendered":"Sources: Trump asked Comey to end investigation of Michael Flynn"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_33325\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33325\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-33325\" src=\"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Trump_Flynn_Comey-300x156.jpg\" alt=\"File Photo: A combination photo shows US President Donald Trump (L), on February 28, 2017, White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (C), February 13, 2017 and FBI Director James Comey in Washington US on July 7, 2016REUTERS\" width=\"300\" height=\"156\" srcset=\"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Trump_Flynn_Comey-300x156.jpg 300w, https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Trump_Flynn_Comey-768x400.jpg 768w, https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Trump_Flynn_Comey-696x362.jpg 696w, https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Trump_Flynn_Comey.jpg 780w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33325\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">File Photo: A combination photo shows US President Donald Trump (L), on February 28, 2017, White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (C), February 13, 2017 and FBI Director James Comey in Washington US on July 7, 2016REUTERS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"excerpt FBIA\">The Comey memo caused alarm on Capitol Hill and raised questions about whether Trump tried to interfere with a federal investigation<\/h2>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<p>US President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end the agency\u2019s investigation into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia, according to a source who has seen a memo written by Comey.<\/p>\n<p>The explosive new development on Tuesday followed a week of tumult at the White House after Trump fired Comey and then discussed sensitive national security information about Islamic State with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.<\/p>\n<p>The Comey memo, first reported by the New York Times, caused alarm on Capitol Hill and raised questions about whether Trump tried to interfere with a federal investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The White House quickly denied the report, saying in a statement it was \u201cnot a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Comey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Comey wrote the memo after he met in the Oval Office with Trump, the day after the Republican president fired Flynn on February 14 for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the extent of his conversations last year with Russia\u2019s ambassador, Sergei Kislyak.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope you can let this go,\u201d Trump told Comey, according to a source familiar with the contents of the memo.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times said that during the Oval Office meeting, Trump condemned a series of government leaks to the news media and said the FBI director should consider prosecuting reporters for publishing classified information.<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"reuters-vidembed\" src=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/assets\/iframe\/yovideo?videoId=371689128\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Coming the day after charges that Trump disclosed sensitive information to the Russians last week, the new disclosure further rattled members of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe memo is powerful evidence of obstruction of justice and certainly merits immediate and prompt investigation by an independent special prosecutor,\u201d said Democratic US Senator Richard Blumenthal.<br \/>\nRepublican and Democratic lawmakers said they wanted to see the memo.<\/p>\n<p>Republican US Representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of a House of Representatives oversight committee, said his committee \u201cis going to get the Comey memo, if it exists. I need to see it sooner rather than later. I have my subpoena pen ready.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a letter to acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Chaffetz set a deadline of May 24 for the FBI to produce \u201call memoranda, notes, summaries, and recordings referring or relating to any communications between Comey and the President.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan backed Chaffetz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to have all the facts, and it is appropriate for the House Oversight Committee to request this memo,\u201d said Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Legal questions<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Legal experts took a dim view of Trump\u2019s comments, as quoted in the memo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the president to tell the FBI to end a potential criminal investigation, that\u2019s obstruction of justice,\u201d said Erwin Chereminsky, a constitutional law professor and dean of University of California, Irvine School of Law. \u201cThis is what caused President Nixon to resign from office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the experts said intent was a critical element of an obstruction of justice charge, and the president\u2019s words could be subject to interpretation and possibly put into the context of other actions, like Comey\u2019s termination.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that the president apparently said he \u201choped\u201d Comey would end the Flynn investigation rather than more directly ordering it \u201cmakes for a weaker but still viable case,\u201d said Christopher Slobogin, a criminal law professor at Vanderbilt University Law School.<\/p>\n<p>Flynn\u2019s resignation came hours after it was reported that the Justice Department had warned the White House weeks earlier that Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail for contacts with Kislyak before Trump took office on Jan. 20.<\/p>\n<p>Kislyak was with Lavrov at the White House when Trump disclosed the sensitive information.<\/p>\n<p>A spokeswoman for the FBI declined to comment on the details of the memo.<\/p>\n<p>An emailed fundraising appeal by Trump\u2019s political organisation and the Republican National Committee sent out after reports of the Comey memo said Trump was being victimised by an \u201cunelected bureaucracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou already knew the media was out to get us,\u201d it said. \u201cBut sadly it\u2019s not just the fake news\u2026 There are people within our own unelected bureaucracy that want to sabotage President Trump and our entire \u2018America First\u2019 movement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new development came as Republican and Democratic lawmakers pressured Trump to give a fuller explanation for why he revealed sensitive intelligence information to Lavrov.<\/p>\n<p>The information had been supplied by a US ally in the fight against the Islamic State militant group, the officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Comey memo caused alarm on Capitol Hill and raised questions about whether Trump tried to interfere with a federal investigation US President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end the agency\u2019s investigation into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia, according to a source who has seen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":33325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.5 - 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