The House Intelligence Committee issued seven subpoenas yesterday, including one for Russian spy Mike Flynn and one for Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, another likely Russian spy, often described as the guy who Trump replaced gangster Roy Cohn with, except without Roy Cohen's charm. The Republicans on the committee would only agree to subpoenas for the spies if the Democrats agreed to let them subpoena the NSA, FBI, CIA so they can pretend the hearings are about wrong-doing under the Obama administration instead about Trump and his lackeys colluding with the Kremlin.
Flynn and Cohen are part of a growing list of current and former Trump aides who have come under scrutiny from the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, which are exploring allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.Cohen on Tuesday declined a request to be interviewed and provide documents to the House committee.Flynn, meanwhile, agreed on Tuesday to provide some documents in response to separate subpoenas issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee, after initially refusing to comply with the panel’s requests and invoking his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
Yesterday Sean Spicer announced that the Regime will no longer answer questions from the press about Trump's campaign colluding with Putin to steal the election. He said all questions should be send to Trump's impeachment lawyer, Marc Kasowitz.This comes on top of an announcement yesterday that Jim Comey will testify at an open Senate Intelligence Committee session, perhaps as early as next week.
Comey has spoken privately with Special Counsel Robert Mueller III to work out the parameters for his testimony to ensure there are no legal entanglements as a result of his public account, a source said. Comey will likely sit down with Mueller, a longtime colleague at the Justice Department, for a formal interview only after his public testimony.When he testifies, Comey is unlikely to be willing to discuss in any detail the FBI's investigation into the charges of possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign-- the centerpiece of the probe, this source said. But he appears eager to discuss his tense interactions with Trump before his firing, which have now spurred allegations that the president may have tried to obstruct the investigation. If it happens, Comey's public testimony promises to be a dramatic chapter in the months-long controversy, and it will likely bring even more intense scrutiny to an investigation that Trump has repeatedly denounced as a "witch hunt."The appointment of Mueller as a special counsel in the Russia investigation had raised concerns among some members of Congress that his probe could scuttle the chance for Congress and the public to hear directly from Comey. That appears less likely now that Mueller and Comey have discussed the limits of his testimony.Since his firing last month, dramatic accounts have emerged in the New York Times, CNN, and elsewhere about the tense confrontations with Trump that Comey memorialized in memos afterward. A week after he took office in January, Trump allegedly demanded Comey's "loyalty" if he kept him on as FBI director, and he urged Comey to drop his ongoing investigation into Michael Flynn, Trump's fired national security adviser, in a separate, one-on-one meeting.The source said that Comey is expected to stand by those accounts in his testimony.
That opens Trump up to a very serious and very impeachable offense: obstruction of justice.In a related matter, and although crooked New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker-- who has taken immense sums of money from the Kushner family, from Jared and Ivanka specifically and has taken in even more from fundraising events that Kusher and Ivanka hosted for him-- more than 40 House Democrats are urging the White House to revoke Kushner's security clearance "to protect national security" until the FBI resolves its investigation of potential collusion between associates of President Donald Trump and agents of the Russian government.Don Beyer (D-VA) and Ted Lieu (D-CA) penned the letter and Beyer told Politico that "Jared Kushner cannot be trusted." Other signatories include House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (D-WA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Carol Shea Porter (D-NH), Judy Chu (D-CA), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Jab Schakowsky (D-IL), and Peter Welch (D-VT). This is what Ted Lieu told us today about Kushner-in-law's role in this mess:
The White House does not deny Jared Kushner omitted multiple Russian meetings from his SF86 security clearance form. Now we know those omissions were deliberate, which is a felony punishable by up to 5 years in prison. The meetings Mr. Kushner had were significant: one was to discuss a secret back-channel to Russia using Russian equipment at the Russian Embassy, and another meeting was with the head of a Russian bank under U.S. sanctions. It is implausible that Mr. Kushner accidently forgot about those meetings, which took place a few weeks before he filled out his form. I looked at my last SF86 submission and a full one-third of it dealt with foreign contacts going back multiple years. If anyone believes Mr. Kushner accidently omitted his Russian meetings on his security clearance form, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. But it gets even worse. If a recent Reuters article is true, then Mr. Kushner lied again when he revised his security clearance form after being confronted with the facts. Reuters reports that there were at least two phone conversations with the Russians that Mr. Kushner failed to disclose. And Mr. Kushner is not the only person who lied on his security clearance application. Sessions and Flynn lied as well. The disrespect for the Rule of Law in the Trump Administration continues to shock the conscience.
