Tag: Senate GOP trying to dirty up Joe Biden

Ex-Justice Dept. official says Michael Flynn secretly ‘neutered’ Obama’s moves on Russia

Washington Post logoFormer deputy attorney general Sally Q. Yates told Congress on Wednesday that President Trump’s incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn in late 2016 had secretly “neutered” Obama administration actions toward Russia, prompting an investigation that consumed the early days of Trump’s presidency.

Yates has been a target of Trump and many Republicans for her brief oversight of the investigation of Russia’s election interference and possible collusion with the Trump campaign four years ago. She testified via video before the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose chairman, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), has been highly critical of the FBI’s handling of that case.

Trump attacked Yates before the hearing began, tweeting that she “has zero credibility” and declaring her “part of the greatest political crime of the Century, and ObamaBiden knew EVERYTHING!” Continue reading.

Yates spars with GOP at testy hearing

The Hill logoRepublican senators sparred on Wednesday with former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates over investigations into former Trump aides that were related to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. 

Yates testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of Chairman Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) probe into the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation and former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Graham is one of two Senate Republicans running probes into the Obama administration’s investigations of Russia. 

The hearing, however, also had overtones of the 2020 election. Graham is a key Senate ally of President Trump, and the investigations are ramping up with less than 100 days to go before the 2020 election. Trump is badly trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in national and key swing-state polls. Continue reading.

GOP’s Obama-era probes fuel Senate angst

The Hill logoThe Republican investigations into the Obama administration are fueling public animosity in the Senate.

Those tensions, which have been simmering for months, boiled over this past week, resulting in shouting matches and multiple warnings of long-standing damage to the chamber as an institution.

The scene played out across days, on and off the floor and in multiple committee rooms, as both Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Lindsey Graham(R-S.C.) took up subpoenas related to their investigations and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified for the first time since resigning last year. Continue reading.