"The truth is the dismissal of Director Comey is part of a much longer pattern of this administration's interfering with or removing the people who are in a position to conduct an independent investigation of the president and his administration", said Senator Schumer.
President Donald Trump's abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey drew controversy and mixed reactions this week. Lindsey Graham said it is time for Trump to come clean about whether he recorded conversations at the White House.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer agreed Trump must provide Congress any tapes that exist and said his colleagues are now analyzing whether they should refuse to vote for a new Federal Bureau of Investigation director unless a special prosecutor is named to probe any ties between Russian Federation and Trump.
Unsurprisingly, support and opposition to the decision has largely split down partisan lines.
A Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted last week found that 62% of Republicans and just 16% of Democrats thought Trump was right to fire Comey, while 58% of Republicans and just 9% of Democrats told NBC they approved of Trump's decision. "The whole notion that the president can throw out these kind of claims and then not either confirm or deny them is outrageous in my mind", Warner said.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, continued to argue that the president should consider Merrick Garland, the federal judge nominated to the Supreme Court previous year by President Barack Obama but who was denied a hearing by Republicans.
Their message that Mr Trump made a decision to fire Mr Comey after reading a memo from the Department of Justice was reversed by Mr Trump himself the next day. "If there are any tapes of this conversation, they need to be turned over", he said.
"I think the process is going to go quickly", Trump said, adding a list of well-known figures are being considered.
New round of Syria peace talks restart in Geneva
Mr Assad has also recently called the Geneva process "null", telling Belarus's ONT channel that it had become "merely a meeting for the media".
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Mr Trump must immediately provide Congress with any tapes and warned that destroying existing tapes would violate the law.
Among the group are the current acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, veteran Republican Senator John Cornyn, former federal prosecutor Michael Garcia, former presidential adviser Fran Townsend, Republican former congressman and FBI agent Mike Rogers, and Trey Gowdy, who led a congressional panel that probed the attacks on a USA compound in Benghazi, Libya in 2012.
"James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
So far 14 people have emerged as candidates.
The first candidate to meet Sessions was Alice Fisher, a 50-year-old white-collar Washington crime lawyer.
Adam Lee, a special agent in charge of the FBI's office in Richmond, Virginia, was interviewed as well.
Several candidates were interviewed on Saturday, including New York Court of Appeals Associate Judge and former prosecutor Michael Garcia. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate leader and a former state attorney general. Hudson, who was appointed by George W. Bush, struck down a major component of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
-Frances Townsend, a former Bush homeland security and counterterrorism adviser.
Comments