Trump Officially Under Investigation For Obstruction Of Justice

This week Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and and former NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett are to be interviewed concerning possible obstruction of justice charges against President Trump. 

Trump has repeatedly said he was not under investigation but that isn't true anymore, according to reporting by The Washington Post on Wednesday night. 

That report makes clear that three senior intelligence officers -- Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and and former NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett -- are being interviewed this week by special counsel Bob Mueller as he looks into whether Trump obstructed justice in the Russia case.

As it stands now Donald Trump is under investigation. Trump wasn't under investigation personally prior to Comey's firing on May 9. But he is now, according to the Post.

That's absolutely huge -- for several reasons.

First, it makes it virtually impossible for the President and his administration to dismiss this probe as a sideshow or small potatoes or a distraction somehow created by the biased media. (That doesn't mean they won't do exactly that, of course.) 

We are now talking about the President of the United States being investigated for possibly obstructing justice in relation to a criminal probe about a foreign government meddling in our elections for the purpose of defeating his Democratic opponent.

Consider that paragraph. And consider we are less than 150 days into Trump's presidency and this -- an investigation by a special counsel who also happens to be the former FBI director -- is where he finds himself.

Second, it suggests that not only is the special counsel's investigation reaching upward in the White House but that is also broadening out from simply an attempt to answer the question of the breadth of Russia's hacking and whether it caught up any Trump officials in it.

Looking into whether Trump obstructed justice means that Mueller is also examining the circumstances surrounding Comey's firing, which was obviously not part of the original federal probe led by Comey when he still had a job as FBI director.

As the Post story notes:
"The interviews (with Rogers, Coats and Ledgett) suggest that Mueller sees the question of attempted obstruction of justice as more than just a 'he said, he said' dispute between the President and the fired FBI director, an official said."

That's critical given that Comey's sworn testimony regarding the pressure put on him by Trump to leave off an investigation into deposed national security adviser Michael Flynn runs directly counter to Trump's assertions about their conversations. Trump -- while not under oath, it's worth noting -- has insisted flatly that he had never urged Comey to slow or stop the Flynn investigation.

None of the above makes Trump guilty. But, what it does is take this special counsel investigation all the way into the Oval Office -- a place where it hasn't gone before. And it also suggests that Mueller isn't narrowing the scope of the investigation he took over on May 18, he's widening it.
All of which makes Trump's efforts to belittle the investigation and move past it that much more difficult.

-Chris Cillizza

My take: By the way we need to keep an eye on Congress in the Senate as they try to pass legislation favorable to Wall Street and legislation undercutting our health care. Yes, as all this brouhaha over Comey, Russia and foolish cabinet meetings fill the headlines OUR congress is doing it's dirty work essentially behind our backs. We will turn around next.