The black cloud of misfortune that has been following the US President Donald Trump doesn’t seem like it’s going to end any time soon. After firing former FBI director James Comey, the President could be investigated for obstruction of justice charges. Trump was however quick to rubbish these claims. In a tweet sent on Thursday, the President called this a “phony story.” He went on to note that the people pushing for this investigation were behind what he called a phony story about Russian collusion. Trump believes that there was no evidence linking members of his team to Russia and remained dismissive of the new investigation.
According to an article on the “Washington Post,” it is emerging that the ongoing investigation into the Russian collusion will now expand into obstruction of justice. Robert Mueller is the special counselman leading the probe. Although in his tweets Trump used the word “they” to refer to the people after him, it was not very clear who he was referring to. However, in recent months, the President has blamed the Democratic Party for spearheading the “the greatest witch-hunt in American history” targeting him and his administration. Trump has also been a vocal critic of the mainstream media. The President, in a follow-up tweet, called the people behind the investigation “very bad and conflicted” ending the tweet with his slogan “Make America Great Again.”
This latest development will surely rattle some people in the Trump administration. Even though Trump himself has indicated many times that at no point was he under investigation for possible collusion with Russia, the obstruction of justice charge may put the blame squarely on his shoulders. The President fired James Comey as FBI director last month in a controversial move that sparked outrage within democrat’s quarters. Comey was leading the investigation into collusion with Russia and there were many who saw his dismissal as obstruction of justice.
However, nothing is proven yet but the fact that special counsel Robert Mueller has expanded his probe to establish whether the President did in fact obstruct justice indicates that there is something worth pursuing. The controversy, however, did not end with the firing. A few days after dismissing the former FBI director, Trump told Russian diplomats who had paid him a visit at the Oval Office that he had fired the “nut job” Comey. Trump also went on to add that the dismissal had taken a lot of pressure from himself. The US President also told Lester Holt in an interview with NBC that the “Russian thing” had occupied his thoughts the moment he decided to fire the former FBI director.
All these assertions appear very suspicious and the argument is that if Comey was fired because of his investigation, then the President has something to explain. James Comey testifying in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee said that he believed President Trump had fired him because of his investigation into the Russian collusion. The former FBI director also remained confident that the Bureau will maintain its independence even after his departure. It will be interesting to see how this story develops in the coming days but no doubt steps towards Trumps indictment have already been taken.
