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?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Republicans and Democrats agree: If Trump has tapes, he’ll need to turn them over to Congress
After
President Trump suggested that he taped his conversations with former
FBI director James B. Comey, lawmakers of both political parties on May
14 said Trump ought to release any recordings that may exist. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
By Ed O'Keefe and Jenna Johnson May 14 at 9:22 PM
By Ed O'Keefe and Jenna Johnson May 14 at 9:22 PM
In the six days since President Trump abruptly fired FBI director James B. Comey, concern from both parties has mounted about the selection of a replacement and the president’s suggestion that he may have secretly taped conversations with the ousted director.
Key Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Sunday called for Trump to
turn over any recorded conversations, based on a tantalizing tweet the
president sent last week that said, “James Comey better hope that there
are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the
press!”
“If there are any tapes of this conversation, they need to be turned
over,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press,”
underscoring a strong bipartisan reaction to the suggestion of White
House tapes.
Democrats continued Sunday to call for appointment of a special
prosecutor to handle the FBI investigation into whether Trump’s campaign
knew of Russian interference in the 2016 election. And after a parade
of eight candidates appeared at the Justice Department for interviews,
members of Congress began voicing their preferences for Comey ‘s
replacement.
After a week of turmoil, none of Trump’s top aides appeared on the major
Sunday morning news shows to defend and explain the president’s
decision. Host Chris Wallace opened “Fox News Sunday” by highlighting who was not on his guest list, saying that the White House would not make anyone available to discuss the Comey firing.
Trump slipped away to his private golf course in Virginia, where aides
said he planned to make calls, have lunch and perhaps hit a few golf
balls.
The bipartisan calls for more White House disclosures came as an NBC
News-Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday found that just 29 percent
of Americans said they approve of Comey’s firing; 38 percent said they
disapprove. About 32 percent of respondents said they didn’t have enough
information to answer. But among those who have been paying “a lot” of
attention to the firing, 53 percent said they disapprove; 33 percent
approved.
On Capitol Hill, where the House will return Monday after a recess,
members continued to disagree about the need for a special prosecutor to
take over the Russia investigation. The inquiry was one of the triggers
for Trump’s displeasure with Comey, who he said was a “showboat”
seeking media attention.
On NBC, Graham dismissed calls for a special prosecutor or independent
commission. “It’s not a criminal investigation. I see no need for a
special commission yet,” he said.
But Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) told CNN that
many Democratic senators support blocking Trump’s nominee for FBI
director until the Justice Department names a special prosecutor.
“We will have to discuss it as a caucus, but I would support that move,
because who the FBI director is is related to who the special prosecutor
is,” Schumer said. noting that Warner, whose committee is also
conducting a Russia probe, also supports a special prosecutor.
His threat to block Trump’s pick may be a bit toothless: Republicans
have 52 seats in the Senate, and a rules change made in 2013 by
Democrats means that whoever Trump nominates requires a simple majority
vote to be confirmed. But the Democratic leader’s comments signal that
any Trump pick is likely to face a politically charged confirmation
fight.
Most Republicans, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and
other House and Senate leaders, oppose a special prosecutor. But Rep.
Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.), a first-term lawmaker, told a Rotary Club
luncheon in his district last week that Trump’s reasons for firing Comey
raise “serious and legitimate questions about timing, intent and the
integrity of ongoing investigations.”
In the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 15 percent of respondents said they
prefer Congress to investigate Russia’s election meddling, while 78
percent supported an independent commission or special prosecutor.
The Senate expects to get more details about Comey’s firing this week in
a requested briefing from Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein,
whose memo to Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that “the FBI’s
reputation and credibility have suffered substantial damage” under
Comey’s leadership. White House aides continue to cite the memo as a
driving factor in the president’s decision. The timing of Rosenstein’s
Senate briefing is uncertain.
Republicans and Democrats agreed on one issue in Sunday interviews — the
need to find out more about Trump’s suggestion that he may have tapes
of private conversations with Comey. Trump and his aides have denied
reports that the president asked Comey to pledge his loyalty and that
the then-FBI director declined.
“I want loyalty to the country. I mean, I want loyalty to the United
States of America. I want him to do a good job — or her — to do a great
job,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News late Saturday.
Asked about a taping system in that interview, Trump said: “I won’t talk
about that. All I want is for Comey to be honest, and I hope he will
be, and I’m sure he will be, I hope.”
Lawmakers from both parties said any White House recordings must be preserved for congressional review.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a former federal prosecutor, said that “it’s
probably inevitable” such recordings would need to be handed over to
Congress and predicted that they would be subpoenaed. Asked on “Fox News
Sunday” about Trump’s decision to set up a taping system, Lee called it
“not necessarily the best idea.”
Schumer said that if such tapes exist, “the president should turn them over immediately.”
“To destroy them would be a violation of law. But he should turn them
over to Congress and to the investigators,” Schumer told CNN’s “State of
the Union.” “If there are no tapes, he should apologize to both Jim
Comey and the American people for misleading them.”
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia, the top
Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said his panel
or another congressional committee “absolutely” would subpoena Trump
for any recordings.
“We have got to make sure that these tapes, if they exist, don’t mysteriously disappear,” Warner said.
Rosenstein, who is overseeing the Justice Department’s Russia probe, has
not signaled that he plans to appoint an independent investigator.
On Saturday, Sessions and Rosenstein interviewed eight people for the
FBI director job, including Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.); acting FBI
director Andrew McCabe; New York State Court of Appeals Judge Michael
Garcia; Alice Fisher, who previously led the DOJ’s criminal division;
former congressman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), a former FBI agent; and
Frances Townsend, who served as President George W. Bush’s homeland
security adviser and is a CBS News contributor.
The next FBI director “should be not a partisan politician, not part of either party,” Schumer told CNN.
Lee said Trump should nominate Judge Merrick Garland, chief judge of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to lead the FBI.
Garland was former president Barack Obama’s nominee to replace the late
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but Republicans blocked the
nomination last year to allow Obama’s successor to make the choice.
Also appearing on Fox News, Josh Holmes, a top outside political adviser
to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — who orchestrated
the year-long blockade of Garland — said that the Senate leader also
would support Garland’s nomination to the FBI post.
Vice President Pence and other senior Republicans have said they would
back Garland. Privately, Democrats have expressed doubt that Garland
would even consent to an interview for the job.