Popcorn: Acting Attorney General Fired By Trump Asked To Testify About Russia

The committee’s ranking Democrat, Adam Schiff, Calif., also told reporters Tuesday that he was happy to look into the president’s allegations – but warned that if they were proven false, accusing Obama of ordering an illegal wiretap could pose much bigger problems for Trump.

Since the release of the January report, the House investigation has expanded beyond the computer hacks to alleged Russian use of fake news and social media to try to discredit Clinton, and, in the past few days, to Trump’s claims that Obama had ordered Trump’s phones tapped in the waning days of the campaign.

What’s most irksome is that the mainstream media have thrown a complete blanket over a very plausible account because it tarnishes their hero, former President Barack Obama. Speaking to the Fox news, Mr. Levin laid out an array of media reports from Trump-unfriendly media houses which strongly suggest that the allegations are true or at least could be true. We were led to believe it was the ambassador who was being spied upon.

Nunes also questioned the official explanation for why Flynn’s calls were recorded.

When pressed on whether he believed Trump’s allegations, House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes – one of Trump’s strongest supporters in the House and a member of his transition team – brushed aside the President’s allegations.

“I would assume that, if the president is not telling the truth about this, those who know the truth would say what the truth is”, said Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

“The Guardian has learned that the Federal Bureau of Investigation applied for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court over the summer in order to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials”.

The Guardian has been unable to independently verify that reporting.

The FBI has been sucked into a row over surveillance after Trump sensationally claimed at the weekend that his phones had been “wiretapped” by Obama during the election.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of SC asked Rosenstein if he knew of any way that Obama could have ordered a wiretap without a court’s approval. Once Edward Snowden disclosed several NSA surveillance programs monitoring Americans in 2013, it proved that we still had not struck a balance, even if Obama claims his administration was reviewing NSA practices. As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any USA citizen. “However, I think he’s right in that there was surveillance and that it was conducted at the behest of the attorney – of the Justice Department through the FISA court”. This request did not name Donald Trump, and it was granted.

But there is bound to be partisan disagreement whether the various leaks about the probe that have already become public were an abuse of power, and by whom.

Democrats have been howling, with no evidence to justify their claims, for months about such contacts interfering with the 2016 presidential race, but have yet to produce any “smoking gun” worthy of investigating, and in some cases, actually admitting no apparent interference occurred. And we need to know what role, if any, former President Obama played in this sordid affair.