Sen. Ron Wyden said there was “almost a Watergate-level effort” to block an investigation
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WASHINGTON — James Comey confirmed reporting Wednesday that in several private conversations, President Trump had told the former FBI director he expected his loyalty and asked him to drop the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
While the allegations were explosive, Republicans in Congress and some members of the Senate Intelligence Committee — who will be tasked with questioning Comey on Thursday — stayed quiet. Meanwhile, Democrats jumped on the news, and Sen. John McCain R-Ariz., publicly fretted about the unfolding story.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and will be at Thursday’s hearing. Wyden said on CNN that Comey’s confirmation that Trump asked him to drop the investigation into Flynn reflected “almost a Watergate-level effort to interfere with an ongoing investigation.”
McCain was rueful at the Capitol on Wednesday, telling reporters, “I think there’s going to be many shoes to drop before this one is over.”
But the Republican National Committee posted a tweet suggesting there was no real substance to Comey’s statement, and Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., said Comey’s statement confirmed Trump had not asked him to shut down the Russia probe.
Reality check: Comey testimony – he told @POTUS Trump he was not being investigated; POTUS did not ask him to stop Russia investigation.
But Democrats were piling on.
“We swear an oath to the Constitution, not a person or a President, ” tweeted Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. Harris is also on the Intelligence Committee.
We swear an oath to the Constitution, not a person or a President. https: //t.co/i4jrGVCJqj
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said that Trump “appears to have obstructed justice.”
California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence Committee, which like its Senate counterpart is investigating Russian interference in the election, said the testimony “confirms a host of troubling allegations.”
Schiff accused Trump of an “improper effort to coerce the intelligence agencies to do public relations for the White House and to undermine the independence and integrity of the intelligence community.”
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, who is also on the House Intelligence Committee, said the behavior was “highly suspect” and called for Comey’s memos of the interactions to be released. He also said Comey should testify before the committee.
Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, who is the Democratic whip, used the testimony to call for an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election. While there has been a special counsel appointed at the Justice Department to investigate possible Trump campaign interactions with Russia, Democrats have not given up efforts to get a separate panel.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican and close ally of Trump’s, said on MSNBC that the president’s comments to Comey would have been considered “normal New York City conversations, ” and Trump would not know to avoid them because he wasn’t used to being in government.
“What people don’ t understand is they elected an outsider president. They elected someone who’s never been inside government and quite frankly didn’ t spent a lot of time interacting with government officials except at the local level. And so the idea of the way, the tradition of these agencies, is not something that he’s ever been steeped in, ” Christie said.
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