Washington: The most prominent congressional investigation into Russian meddling in the US election—and possible ties to President Donald Trump’s campaign—faces its toughest test yet after the firing of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James Comey.
Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr, a Republican, and vice chairman Mark Warner, a Democrat, have sought to present a bipartisan front in the high-pressure probe, and both have said Comey’s FBI was cooperating by providing information to the panel. Now they must start a new relationship with acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, and later with a new director nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate.
Both senators also must contend with what’s likely to be an even more poisoned atmosphere in the Capitol with Democrats seeing “Nixonian” signs of a coverup in Comey’s dismissal by Trump on Tuesday. The president has repeatedly rejected the US intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia intervened in the election to help him defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“I am troubled by the timing and reasoning of Director Comey’s termination,” Burr of North Carolina said in a statement. “I have found Director Comey to be a public servant of the highest order, and his dismissal further confuses an already difficult investigation by the committee.”
The Senate intelligence panel has a fairly small staff compared with the vast reach of the Trump administration, and it relies on the FBI and the rest of the intelligence community to gather information.
One immediate question is whether Comey will be called before Congress, either in public or behind closed doors, to discuss what he knows about the FBI’s investigation. A number of Democrats, including Warner of Virginia, say he should be summoned to appear.
Warner slammed the firing amid the Russia probe as “deeply troubling.”
“The administration insists there’s no ‘there there,’ yet President Trump has so far fired the acting attorney general, nearly every U.S. attorney, and now the director of the FBI,” Warner said in a statement. “In addition, this president’s choice for attorney general has been forced to recuse himself, and the national security adviser has resigned, as a result of undisclosed contacts with Russian officials.”
Warner and many other Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York insisted that a special prosecutor must be appointed—a call Republicans haven’t joined.
“The only way this administration can begin to demonstrate a commitment to the rule of law, which has so far been sorely lacking, is to cooperate fully with the ongoing congressional investigations and to support the appointment of an independent special counsel,” Warner said.
Warner had recently cited progress in getting more raw intelligence from federal agencies, including from the National Security Agency. But earlier Tuesday, he confirmed he was holding up an administration nominee until the intelligence panel receives more information it requested from the Treasury Department.
Praise for Comey
Asked before Comey’s firing Tuesday if he was prepared to issue subpoenas to get information sought by the committee, Burr said he was prepared to do what it takes to get information to complete the investigation. He said he had no reason to believe the administration wouldn’t fully cooperate.
Burr later went out of his way to praise Comey’s help.
“Director Comey has been more forthcoming with information than any FBI director I can recall in my tenure on the congressional intelligence committees,” Burr said. “His dismissal, I believe, is a loss for the bureau and the nation.”
But Senator Susan Collins, another member of the committee and a moderate Republican, called the firing “likely the inevitable conclusion” of Comey’s decision to bypass protocols and publicly announce his reasons for not recommending charges against Clinton while criticizing her actions in using a private email server while secretary of state.
“Any suggestion that today’s announcement is somehow an effort to stop the FBI’s investigation of Russia’s attempt to influence the election last fall is misplaced,” said Collins of Maine in a statement. “The president did not fire the entire FBI; he fired the director. I have every confidence that the FBI will continue to pursue its investigation” and the Senate panel will “follow the evidence wherever it leads.”
Firing ‘outrageous’
Senator Ron Wyden, a Democratic member of the Intelligence committee and one of Comey’s fiercest critics, nonetheless called the firing amid the Russia investigation “outrageous.”
“Director Comey should be immediately called to testify in an open hearing about the status of the investigation into Russia and Trump associates at the time he was fired,” Wyden said. “The president would do well to remember that in America, the truth always comes out.”
The firing was also criticized by Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is conducting its own investigation of Russian interference in the election.
“The same president who has called the investigation into the Russian hacking of our democracy and the potential complicity of his campaign a ‘fake,’ cannot pretend to have made such a decision uninfluenced by his concerns over Comey’s continued involvement in the investigation,” Schiff said. Bloomberg