ON THE DAY President Donald Trump embarked on his first trip abroad, White House lawyers have reportedly been researching impeachment proceedings in preparation for what is now becoming more of a probability than just a possibility: removing Trump from office.
This oversized baggage Trump took with him has been a consequence of his firing of FBI Director James Comey with regards to his motive and the way by which he fired Comey, who was investigating the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia in interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Comey learned about his ouster on TV, without Trump giving the highly respected FBI chief the courtesy of speaking to him personally about the ouster. This followed after Comey reportedly asked for more resources for the FBI to further pursue the probe on the Russia-Trump campaign connection.
When the ouster of Comey backfired against Trump, the president said the reason why he fired Comey was because he thought the chief did not have the leadership required to run the bureau, especially after Comey disclosed that Hillary Clinton was under investigation because of her emails just a week before the election.
However, this version of the motive was negated by Trump himself in a TV interview wherein he disclosed that he fired Comey with the Russian investigation on his mind.
This has been in congruence with Comey’s revelation following his ouster. In contemporaneous memoranda, he wrote in detail his communications with Trump in which he felt uncomfortable and even appalled because of impropriety of Trump’s message and/or action.
One such memorandum revealed that Trump allegedly asked Comey to let go of the investigation of Michael Flynn’s connection with Russia, as the former National Security Advisor was part of the Trump campaign.
In an earlier incident, Trump asked Comey if he would pledge his loyalty to him. As the New York Times reported, Comey declined to make that pledge. Instead, Comey has reportedly recounted to others that he told Trump that he would always be honest with him, but that he was not “reliable” in the conventional political sense.
But on Friday, May 19, the New York Times dropped the biggest bombshell yet that builds the case of the impeachable offense of “obstruction of justice.”
Last week, the same day Trump supposedly shared classified intelligence with the Russians, he was quoted as telling the Russian envoy and foreign minister in the oval office:
“I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Trump said, according to the document, which was read to the New York Times by an American official. “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”
The New York Times further reported that Trump added, “I’m not under investigation.”
In an effort to regain public trust on the probe being done by the DOJ on the Russian probe, highly respected former FBI Director Robert Mueller has been appointed by the DOJ deputy attorney general to be the special counsel tasked lead the investigation of the Russia-Trump campaign alleged connection. Mueller has also reportedly given Comey the go-signal to present his testimony under oath in the senate inquiry.
Where will the facts take Trump? Is this the beginning of the end for the Trump presidency?
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
