With a visit to the White House regarding matters discovered by the FBI during its investigations Republican Congressmen Devin Nunes may have opened the door to the appointment many members of the GOP have opposed and which would be a bitter pill for the Republicans to swallow.
Testimony
At the beginning of his testimony to the House Intelligence Committee chaired by Nunes on Monday FBI Director #James Comey confirmed there were investigations into Russian hacking of the presidential election and into collusion between the Trump team and Russian agents.
On Wednesday Representative Nunes visited the White House to brief President #Donald Trump that in the course of investigations the FBI may have intercepted members of the Trump team during the transition period and possibly even the President himself.
This briefing angered the senior Democrat of the Committee Adam Schiff who believes that the briefing puts in danger the capacity of the committee to carry out its task on the investigations. Considering Nunes own role in the Trump team during the transition period Schiff asked whether the Chairman was capable of acting independently on the matters being investigated and thus compromising the ability of the Committee to give a fair and proper result from its activities.
More revelations
A few hours after the briefing of the President a report by CNN put even more pressure on Nunes and the Committee that he chairs.
The news network reported that the FBI investigations had gathered evidence that “indicates associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign.”
The collusion indicated by the report refers to the timing of the release of the emails hacked from the DNC computers which many indicate as one of the reasons that led to Hillary Clinton’s defeat on November 8th.
No comment has yet been made by either the White House or the FBI in relation to this report.
This development makes the Oval Office’s position even more difficult. Worse still, FBI Chairman Comey’s testimony on Monday clearly showed that the Bureau will not name the people involved and thus public suspicions will fall on any and all members of the Administration.
In addition, the tactics of Republican members of the Intelligence Committee to direct their questions towards the leakers rather than the implications of Comey’s testimony indicate more interest in protecting the President than in the accusations themselves.
Prosecutor
The result of these two items may well be the result that many Republicans have resisted so far; the appointment of a Special Prosecutor or Commission to investigate the allegations currently under investigations.
For many Republicans such an appointment will have unpleasant memories of the Watergate investigations that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. Strangely this scandal too began with an investigation of the theft of documents from the Democratic National Committee offices, even though these were paper and not email as occurred in the current case.
Worries
In a situation which directly involves the election of the man holding the highest office in the land the allegations of Russian hacking in favour of Donald Trump during the campaign therefore puts at risk the prestige of the Office itself.
The revelations this week have reinforced the need for independent investigation of these matters to ensure that when the results of the investigations are finally released that they are not tainted by accusations of bias or obfuscation by either the Republican or Democrat members of the Commissions.
It must be remembered that these accusations are also a source of worry for the country’s international allies and the answers provided must also satisfy their unease at possible Russian interference in the election.
Congress and the Senate must now decide if such a move is required and they must do so quickly.
