A breaking news report from The Washington Post has revealed that President Trump is under investigation for possible obstruction of justice by the independent counsel tasked with looking into collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
The Department of Justice appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to head the FBI’s probe after Trump fired Robert Comey from his role as FBI Director last month. The investigation is focused on alleged ties to Moscow from Trump’s inner circle as well as Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Trump has long touted the fact that he himself was not under investigation, but that narrative is no longer true.
From The Washington Post:
The obstruction-of-justice investigation of the president began days after Comey was fired on May 9, according to people familiar with the matter. Mueller’s office has now taken up that work, and the preliminary interviews scheduled with intelligence officials indicate his team is actively pursuing potential witnesses inside and outside the government.
The interviews suggest Mueller sees the question of attempted obstruction of justice as more than just a “he said, he said” dispute between the president and the fired FBI director, an official said.
Probing Trump for possible crimes is a complicated affair, even if convincing evidence of a crime were found. The Justice Department has long held that it would not be appropriate to indict a sitting president. Instead, experts say, the onus would be on Congress to review any findings of criminal misconduct and then decide whether to initiate impeachment proceedings.
The question of whether or not Trump obstructed justice reached a fever pitch after Comey’s Senate testimony last week when the former FBI Director confirmed that Trump tried to pressure him to drop the probe into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Featured image: Michael Vadon (Flickr)
