If Trump wasn't under investigation before for colluding with Russian spies to steal the election from Hillary Clinton, it seems that he may be now for claims that he intentionally obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey just over a month ago...at least according to more anonymous sources from the Washington Post which have proven themselves to be slightly less than completely 'accurate' several times in the recent past.
According to Wapo, this new revelation marks a "major turning point" in the investigation of the Trump administration and will get underway with interviews of numerous "senior intelligence officials" as early as this week.
The special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election is interviewing senior intelligence officials as part of a widening probe that now includes an examination of whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials said.
The move by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate Trump’s own conduct marks a major turning point in the nearly year-old FBI investigation, which until recently focused on Russian meddling during the presidential campaign and on whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Investigators have also been looking for any evidence of possible financial crimes among Trump associates, officials said.
Five people briefed on the requests, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said Daniel Coats, the current director of national intelligence, Adm. Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, and Rogers’ recently departed deputy, Richard Ledgett, agreed to be interviewed by Mueller’s investigators as early as this week. The investigation has been cloaked in secrecy and it’s unclear how many others have been questioned by the FBI.
Of course, like most of these salacious stories from the past 6 months, the click-baity headline from Wapo is followed, albeit 10 paragraphs into the story, with a slightly more realistic 'hedging' clause which basically confirms that the whole thing may just be another piece of 'fake news'. And here is today's 'hedge':
The interviews suggest Mueller sees the attempted obstruction of justice question as more than just a “he said, he said” dispute between the president and the fired FBI director, an official said.
So, to summarize, for anyone who has managed to ignore all the mass hysteria of the past 6 months, the intelligence community basically forced Trump's hand by slowly leaking out damaging innuendos and accusations over the past several months, all while refusing to confirm that he, himself, was never actually under investigation. In the end, those damaging leaks, combined with Comey's refusal to confirm publicly that Trump was not under investigation, resulted in Comey's sudden dismissal on May 9th. And now, even though he was never a target of any investigation, leaks from the intelligence community has forced a situation where Trump may be under investigation by the intelligence community...anyone else find that even slightly disturbing?