U.S. House panel launches probe into possible obstruction by Trump

[webfact]

U.S. House panel launches probe into possible obstruction by Trump

By Tim Ahmann

 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) annual meeting at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S., March 2, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House Judiciary Committee will seek documents from more than 60 people and organizations as it begins investigations into possible obstruction of justice and abuse of power by President Donald Trump, the panel's chairman said on Sunday.

 

Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler told ABC's "This Week" the panel wanted documents from the Department of Justice, the president's son Donald Trump Jr. and Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, among others.

 

"We are going to initiate investigations into abuses of power, into corruption ... and into obstruction of justice," Nadler said. "It's our job to protect the rule of law."

 

"It's very clear that the president obstructed justice," Nadler said. He said it was too soon to consider whether impeachment should be pursued, however.

"Before you impeach somebody, you have to persuade the American public that it ought to happen," he said. 

 

As evidence of obstruction, Nadler cited Trump's May 2017 firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was leading an investigation into Russia activities in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion with Trump's campaign.

 

That investigation was subsequently taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is expected to deliver his findings to the U.S. attorney general within weeks.

 

To aid its inquiry into possible obstruction of justice, the committee is expected to focus its document requests on actions by Trump that could constitute efforts to remove perceived enemies and install more loyal replacements at the Justice Department, according to a person familiar with the matter.

 

On "This Week", Nadler also cited what he called Trump's attempts to intimidate witnesses in the investigation. The source said that, as part of its investigations into possible abuses of power, the committee would examine both potential promises of pardons as well as witness tampering and Trump's attacks on investigations and the press.

 

Nadler said that on Monday the committee will release the list of people and organizations it would request documents from.

 

Trump has denied his campaign worked with Moscow. "I am an innocent man being persecuted by some very bad, conflicted & corrupt people in a Witch Hunt that is illegal & should never have been allowed to start," Trump said in a tweet on Sunday.

 

The White House and the Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment on Nadler's remarks.

 

Trump told a group of conservative activists and politicians on Saturday that investigators want to look at his finances and business dealings because no evidence of collusion has been found. "All of a sudden they are trying to take you out with bullshit," he said.

 

While the Mueller investigation is focused on specific crimes, Congress' probes will cast a wider net, Nadler said.

 

Testimony by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen last week directly implicated Trump in various crimes including campaign finance violations, Nadler said.

 

Congressional investigators will also look at whether Trump used the White House for personal enrichment in violation of the Constitution's emoluments clause, he said.

 

"This investigation goes far beyond collusion," said Nadler, whose committee would take the lead in any effort to impeach the president.

 

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy attacked Nadler as having an impeachment agenda.

 

"They're setting a whole new course because there's no collusion so they want to build something else," he told ABC.

 

Several U.S. congressional committees are pursuing investigations focussing on Trump.

 

The House Intelligence Committee's Democratic chairman, Adam Schiff, said his panel would look at negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, which Cohen said continued well into the 2016 presidential campaign.

 

"That was a deal that stood to make him more money than any other deal in his life and it was a deal where he was pursuing help from the Kremlin, from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin himself, at a time when Putin was seeking relief from sanctions," Schiff told CBS' "Face the Nation."

 

"That is the most compromising circumstance that I can imagine."

 

(Reporting by Tim Ahmann, Doina Chiacu and David Morgan; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-03-04

[Chomper Higgot]

Donny Jnr named as being in the cross hairs and credible reporting Ivanka and Kushner too.

 

What a difference a House Majority makes.

 

Illiberals get your denial glasses on, the truth will (despite Individual-1’s best efforts) out.

 

 

[Tug]

Well yes they are going to look closely at him for any wrongdoing as it should be stop complaining be happy we have patriots who will get to the truth so why worry be happy if he is innocent he will be vindicated if guilty hopefully prison 

[Scott]

Troll post and reply removed.

 

[Chomper Higgot]

The Washington Post now reporting the reason Cohen is being given an extra day in front of the House Intelligence committee is in order to examine a ‘pardon offer’.

 

O Lordy, Cohen has a habit of making tapes.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/lawmakers-exploring-possible-pardon-talks-involving-michael-cohen/2019/03/02/35dfd94e-3b88-11e9-aaae-69364b2ed137_story.html?utm_term=.1e41d46d0965

[Srikcir]

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Cohen has a habit of making tapes.

I'm surprised he didn't play his recording of Trump coordinating with him on structuring how to pay Stormy Daniels for her silence before the House committee. Yes, we've all heard this recording many times before, but there would be a certain personalis effectus with Cohen present while his recording is played and presenting a copy of Trump's check to reimburse Cohen.

[Caldera]

Don Donald and family in matching, orange jumpsuits. It might just happen.

[ballpoint]

Trump is guilty of so much obstruction that they should send him to the Mexican border instead of building a wall.

[Cryingdick]

At the rate they are going Trump will have been re-elected and already out of office before anything happens.

[jimmyyy]

This is all politics, if there was any proof of collusion it would have come out by now.  Cohen is a disbarred Felon, all this is is background noise leading up to the 2020 election. 

[thaibeachlovers]

Just another investigation to add to all the other ones that are finding little if anything to bring Trump down.

If they are spending so much time on Trump, who is doing any investigating on actual wrong doing in the US?

[neeray]

52 minutes ago, Cryingdick said:

At the rate they are going Trump will have been re-elected and already out of office before anything happens.

He'd make a great President of Prisoners. They could challenge each other on braggadocio all day long. Trump would never run dry. blah blah blah

Put him in with El Chapo. They've both made billions illegally.

Edited March 4, 2019 by neeray
further thought

[attrayant]

1 hour ago, jimmyyy said:

This is all politics, if there was any proof of collusion it would have come out by now.

 

Why are you so fixated on the Russian conspiracy angle?  And why do you think it would have come out by now?  Mueller's team has been tight as a drum with no major leaks.

 

 

Quote

  Cohen is a disbarred Felon, all this is is background noise leading up to the 2020 election. 

 

I don't see how this is relevant.  If a disbarred felon has information accompanied by hard evidence that you can verify by other means, so what if it came from a tainted source?

 

And what should happen when criminal activity of a second sort is discovered while investigating criminal activity of the first sort?  Just let it go?

 

 

Edited March 4, 2019 by attrayant

[attrayant]

50 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

If they are spending so much time on Trump, who is doing any investigating on actual wrong doing in the US?

 

Do you think this small group are the only criminal investigators the country has?

[Opl]

1 hour ago, jimmyyy said:

This is all politics, if there was any proof of collusion it would have come out by now.  Cohen is a disbarred Felon, all this is is background noise leading up to the 2020 election. 

Trump knows the best felons… to be continued

Edited March 4, 2019 by Opl

[Basil B]

1 hour ago, Caldera said:

Don Donald and family in matching, orange jumpsuits. It might just happen.

Some how I think he will escape that...

 

He will probably be dead a buried Before they get to the truth at the bottom of that stinking swamp.

[Basil B]

10 minutes ago, Opl said:

Trump knows the best felons… to be continued

Every one around him seems to be corrupt, why do you think he hired them?

[Berkshire]

6 minutes ago, Basil B said:

Some how I think he will escape that...

 

He will probably be dead a buried Before they get to the truth at the bottom of that stinking swamp.

Possibly.  He has the power of the Presidency and his Republican goons to protect him.  Maybe he's following in the footsteps of the original "teflon Don," aka John Gotti.  Gotti too thought that he was above the law, but it finally caught up to him.  If there's any justice in America, Trump will die in prison just like Gotti did.   

[lannarebirth]

8 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

  If there's any justice in America, Trump will die in prison just like Gotti did.   

 

There isn't any, just so you know.

 

Anyhow, it's not like the Democrats are getting much sympathy for the rise of Trump. Most find them responsible for it. Important not to overplay your hand IMO.

[johnnybangkok]

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Just another investigation to add to all the other ones that are finding little if anything to bring Trump down.

If they are spending so much time on Trump, who is doing any investigating on actual wrong doing in the US?

The thought process of your typical Trump devotee:-

- Russia didn't interfere in the election.

- OK, they interfered, but there were no contacts between Russia and the Trump Campaign.

- OK, there were contacts, but Trump didn't have any deals with Russia.

- OK, Trump had deals with Russia, but it's not like there were meetings with Russian intelligence agents.

- OK, there were meetings with Russian intelligence agencies, but Trump didn't know about them.

- OK, Trump knew, but nothing came of them, so there was no collusion.

- OK, some people in his campaign colluded, but Trump specifically didn't collude, so therefore there is no collusion.

 

I really don't know what you people need to finally have your Trump goggles removed. Whether or not Trump can be proven to have personally been involved is obviously the soon to be answered question, but even if it comes back that they can't prove anything (Trump isn't stupid after all and is unlikely to have left an obvious smoking gun) there is no way you can say he was not aware of all this and therefore guilty by association.

The standards you set this man decrease by the day and as long as your stocks are going up and your taxes coming down, you happily turn a blind eye to the fact the highest office in the land is being dragged to a level most 3rd world dictators would blanch at.

Where is your morality? Where is your sense of right and wrong?

Or is it as it seems when we all have to read your inane postings, that you really just don't care?

[ballpoint]

24 minutes ago, Basil B said:

Every one around him seems to be corrupt, why do you think he hired them?

It was a cunning plan.  If you hire honest people and they later tell the truth about you, then everyone believes them.  If you hire a bunch of crooks and they later tell the truth about you, then you can point out that they can't be trusted, because of how crooked they are. 

[Basil B]

3 minutes ago, ballpoint said:

It was a cunning plan.  If you hire honest people and they later tell the truth about you, then everyone believes them.  If you hire a bunch of crooks and they later tell the truth about you, then you can point out that they can't be trusted, because of how crooked they are. 

Exactly, you do not hire a honest accountant to cook your books for you, but there again you can not go running to law enforcement when they rip you off.

[mtls2005]

Just wait until the Jeffrey Epstein "Agreement" is opened up.

 

Dershowitz isn't only trying to hide his own complicity.

 

Can't wait to hear the evangelicals explain that one away.

[joecoolfrog]

3 hours ago, jimmyyy said:

This is all politics, if there was any proof of collusion it would have come out by now.  Cohen is a disbarred Felon, all this is is background noise leading up to the 2020 election. 

But but but Cohen

[Thingamabob]

There is nothing in this. Just a load of rubbish allegations of no substance whatsoever.

[Chomper Higgot]

5 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

Just wait until the Jeffrey Epstein "Agreement" is opened up.

 

Dershowitz isn't only trying to hide his own complicity.

 

Can't wait to hear the evangelicals explain that one away.

This!

[Mansell]

This is the beginning of the end for Trump and his family......the cronies are long gone. It is amazing to me with all the people either in jail, going to jail, or indicted, that his supporters cannot see the wood for the trees. Wouldn't it be ironic if Trump either gets indicted, or thrown out of office, or resigns, and a disgruntled supporter offs him because he's disappointed that he didn't Make America Great Again. The ultimate irony because of all the hatred Trump sowed in the country against others.

[Opl]

7 hours ago, ballpoint said:

It was a cunning plan.  If you hire honest people and they later tell the truth about you, then everyone believes them.  If you hire a bunch of crooks and they later tell the truth about you, then you can point out that they can't be trusted, because of how crooked they are. 

yes! Another cunning plan .." President Donald Trump told veteran television reporter Lesley Stahl that he attacks the press to "demean" and "discredit" reporters so that the public won't believe "negative stories" about him. " https://www.businessinsider.fr/us/trump-attacks-media-to-undermine-negative-stories-60-minutes-interview-2018-5

 

[Chomper Higgot]

I enjoyed January and February was a delight.

 

March has gotten off to a fabulous start.

[Redline]

He should have, at least, gotten rid of his interest in his businesses-that would have decreased some investigations