House Democrats Armed With Subpoenas, Want Answers On Trump, Russia, NBC
By Ken Dilanian. WASHINGTON — When Democrats assume control of the House of Representatives in January, President Donald Trump will face something he has never before experienced: An opposition party with subpoena power whose goal is to make public every detail of the 2016 Russian election interference effort.
That fact became even more consequential Wednesday, when Trump forced out Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The departure of Sessions places the acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, in charge of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether Trump conspired with Russia. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who previously was in charge, was only in that role because Sessions had recused himself, citing his role in the Trump campaign.
Now, Whitaker, who was Sessions' chief of staff, takes the reins. Before he joined the government, he repeatedly criticized the Mueller probe, saying, for example, that Mueller should not investigate Trump's finances.
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have not explicitly said they would re-open the committee's Russia investigation, which was closed in March by the Republicans in charge of the committee. But they have said there are many additional questions they would like to answer. Republicans announced they had found no evidence of Trump campaign collusion with Russia; Democrats proclaimed that a laughable whitewash. They noted that the committee had allowed Steve Bannon to dodge questions, had failed to demand relevant documents from the Trump campaign, and had not heard from key witnesses.
"We're certainly going to look at the work that we were able to do, we're going to look at the work that the GOP obstructed on our committee," Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who will chair the committee in January, said on MSNBC. "We'll have to see what Bob Mueller has been able to do and what Bob Mueller has been able to say, either via indictment or via report, and that will also guide what we intend to do in our committee."
On Wednesday, after Sessions stepped down, Schiff tweeted that "The Mueller investigation and the independence of the DOJ must be protected." - Read More...
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