Yesterday was another disaster for Team Trump, first and foremost in the House Intelligence Committee, which publicly questioned FBI Director Jim Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers. From the very outset the main takeaways were going to be that Trump and his campaign are being investigated by counter-intelligence for what can only be regarded as treason if it pans out-- connivance with Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 election and that Trump has lied about Obama wire tapping him.Republicans on the committee immediately went into panic mode and circled the wagons trying desperately to turn the hearing into something about leaks. As GOP presidential candidate and former CIA employee Evan McMullin put it in a tweet during the hearing, "this is why they can't be trusted to investigate." It was clear to anyone paying attention that one party, the Republicans, was all about party over country. It was ugly. Scott Shane, covering it for the NY Times, noted that the committee usually meets behind closed doors and that this was a fairly rare exception. So now Americans know for sure-- not "fake news"-- that the FBI is and has been since July absolutely investigating "the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts." That was straight from the horse's mouth. He added that the FBI will make "an assessment of whether any crimes were committed."Both Comey and Rogers-- in strong, prepared statements-- "definitively dismissed" Señor Trumpanzee’s deranged, Adderall-fueled tweets March 4 claiming that he and his campaign had been the target of eavesdropping ordered by former President Obama.
While the two officials hedged their answers on some questions and declined to answer others, they were unequivocal in rebutting Mr. Trump’s claims.“I have no information that supports those tweets and we have looked carefully inside the F.B.I.,” Mr. Comey said. “The Department of Justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the Department of Justice and all its components. The department has no information that supports those tweets.”Admiral Rogers was asked about another theory, first floated on Fox News and repeated by Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary: that Mr. Obama had asked the British spy agency, known as G.C.H.Q., to intercept Mr. Trump’s communications.“I’ve seen nothing on the N.S.A. side that we engaged in any such activity, nor that anyone ever asked us to engage in such activity,” Admiral Rogers said. Representative Adam Schiff, the committee’s top Democrat, asked what he made of official British denunciations of the G.C.H.Q. claim as “nonsense and utterly ridiculous.”“Would you agree?” Mr. Schiff asked.“Yes, sir,” said Admiral Rogers.
I would have loved to have seen Trump's blood pressure readout at that moment. Yesterday, after the hearing, Carol Shea-Porter was speaking for most Democrats when she called for a nonpartisan, independent investigation of Putin-Gate. "For months, I have voiced deep concerns about coordination between President Trump’s campaign and administration and Russian officials as both a Member of Congress and, before that, as a Presidential Elector. Today’s revelation by Director Comey that the FBI is actively investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia indicates these concerns are well-founded. Director Comey’s testimony today made it clearer than ever that we need an immediate independent investigation to find out the extent to which our democratic process and national security have been compromised."
