President Donald Trump released a few predictably inflammatory tweets Thursday morning regarding the ongoing investigation of his presidential campaign’s potential collusion with Russia.
According to The Washington Post, the investigation, which was first opened last year, is now looking into whether Trump tried to obstruct justice. The reason for this shift in the investigation? Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey in May.
COTTON: “Do you believe Donald Trump colluded with Russia?”
COMEY: “It’s a question I don’t think I should answer in an open setting.” pic.twitter.com/EG5ManLy2d
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 8, 2017
Comey gave some impossible-to-ignore testimony in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee last week, saying, “It’s my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation…I was fired, in some way, to change—or the endeavor was to change the way the Russia investigation was being conducted.” Trump has maintained that his firing of Comey was because of the way the former FBI director handled the Hillary Clinton email scandal.
Trump lashed out on Twitter after the news broke that he was a specific feature of the special council’s investigation, according to Reuters.
They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history – led by some very bad and conflicted people! #MAGA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2017
Obstruction of justice involves “impeding or otherwise obstructing an official proceeding or the due administration of justice with an improper motive,” according to The Washington Post. Basically, it’s any unlawful messing around with evidence, witnesses or anything involved in a crime while an investigation or legal inquiry into that crime is taking place. One of the most obvious moments of possible obstruction, for example, was when Trump allegedly said he “hoped” Comey would drop the investigation into the administration’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
This story is complicated, but hopefully the parties responsible for making sure we don’t mess with Russia figure out what really happened here.