Not long after Donald Trump departed for his first foreign trip as president Friday afternoon, a cavalcade of bombshells dropped. The New York Times quoted an official summary of Trump’s controversial meeting with Russian officials in the Oval Office, during which he apparently referred to fired FBI Director James Comey as a “nut job.” Meanwhile, the Washington Post indicated investigators were pursuing a “person of interest” with close ties to the president. Overall, this sounds like enough to rage the tweeter-in-chief as soon as Air Force One lands… then came word of a “cover up.”
According to McClatchy DC, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein indicated to members of Congress during a Friday briefing that the investigation — now led by ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller — was trying to determine if there was a cover up of possible collusion. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) said officials practically accept as fact that Russia tried to influence the 2016 election, and that their remaining concerns were determining if there was “collusion with the Russians” and “an attempt to cover up” said collusion.
On Thursday, Rosenstein told senators he knew Trump was going to fire Comey before writing his memo. House members in Friday’s meeting confirmed this, but noted Rosenstein refused to answer specific questions about the matter since his “memo and its role in Comey’s firing were likely to be part of the investigation.” Though Rep. Mark Walker (R-North Carolina) did say, “This is a thorough investigation of what happened in the 2016 election, and it can go anywhere.”
(Via McClatchy DC)