Scott Powers
As Florida’s Democratic members of Congress entered another day of denouncements toward new reports of President Donald Trump actions – this time involving former FBI Director James Comey – Republican U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo raised strong concerns about potential obstruction of justice by the president.
And other Florida Republicans are joining in a call to get Comey and his now famous memo in front of Congress.
In a late-night interview on CNN, Curbelo, of Kendall, said Congress should subpoena Comey and his documents and question him about the validity of reports that the president asked him to “put aside” an investigation, and that Comey wrote a memo detailing the conversation.
In an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon airing shortly before midnight Tuesday, Curbelo stressed that the truth is not known about the Trump-Comey meeting, but that an action such as that attributed to Comey’s memo could be construed as obstruction of justice. And Curbelo said the House of Representatives has found in the past, in proceedings against Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, that obstruction of justice “has been considered an impeachable offense.”
Multiple media reports Tuesday and Wednesday, starting with the New York Times, citing unnamed sources, say that after a Feb. 14 meeting in the oval office Comey wrote an internal memo reporting that the president asked him to “let go” an FBI investigation into whether former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had inappropriate dealings with Russia.
The White House denied that Trump made any such request.
“We have to hear from Director Comey,” Curbelo told Lemon. “Any effort to stop the federal government from continuing an investigation, any effort to dissuade federal agents from proceeding in an invesigation, is very serious, and could be construed as obstruction of justice.
“I’m not accusing anyone,” Curbelo added. “We don’t know what happened.”
Both Republican U.S. Reps. Brian Mast and Vern Buchanan also called for Comey and his memo to appear before Congress to start delving deeper to seek the truth.
“Mr. Comey should be asked to testify in public so that Congress and the American people can get all the facts and learn the truth,” Buchanan, of Longboat Key, said in a statement issued late Wednesday morning. “And we need to see Mr. Comey’s memo regarding his discussion with the president. Transparency is the best disinfectant.”
Mast, of Palm City, said Congress should have access to “whatever Comey memo or notes exist.”
“Speaking about intelligence, it’s a very serious thing,” Mast said in a written statement. “The way that you gather it is a very fragile thing. And it should be taken very seriously because irreparable harm can be done for a long time.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Miami tweeted, “I hope to get a full and complete briefing on details when they become available.”
In some ways, their comments were as strong as any provided by Florida Democrats following the Trump-Comey meeting reports, which followed within hours of the previous controversy, involving reports that Trump had shared highly-sensitive, highly-classified information with Russian diplomats.
Among Democrats, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson stated, “If true, this is another piece to the puzzle and it does not look good for the White House.”
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Winter Park said much the same as Curbelo:
“This is a very serious allegation,” Murphy said in a statement. “Congress must obtain all relevant information about this conversation, and James Comey must testify in an open forum. Congress must also subpoena White House senior officials and all of Comey’s memos related to his conversations with the President. We need a comprehensive, bipartisan investigation that can follow the facts and uncover the truth.”
U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist of St. Petersburg renewed his call for a special prosecutor:
“If accurate, the President was attempting to impede an FBI investigation with national security implications. It’s just wrong, plain and simple,” Crist stated in a release. “The President is not above the law, but frighteningly it appears he thinks he is. If this isn’t the final straw making clear the need for a special prosecutor, I don’t know what is.”
U.S. Rep. Val Demings of Orlando said the new reports set off an alarm for every member of Congress.
“On the surface this appears to be obstruction of justice, which is why I’m joining my democratic colleagues on the House Oversight Committee in asking for a launch an immediate joint investigation with the House Judiciary Committee,” she stated.
“We need to investigate whether President Donald Trump and his top officials are engaging in an ongoing conspiracy to obstruct the criminal, counter-intelligence, and oversight investigations currently being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, and Congress into members of his presidential campaign and their contacts with Russian officials,” she added.
U.S. Rep. Darren Soto of Orlando called the latest reports “the most damning” yet.
“FBI Director Comey’s notes detail that Trump asked him to drop the case against Gen Flynn. This constitutes the most damning evidence of obstruction of justice yet,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “The revelation comes after news that Trump released highly classified info to Russians putting our country and allies in jeopardy. Time for independent investigative commission!”
U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch of Boca Raton said America is enduring “one shocking revelation after another.”
“The President asked the FBI Director to shut down one investigation, then fired the FBI Director in order to shut down another investigation. In the end, the President’s actions must lead to a new, fully independent investigation to determine any evidence of undue influence or obstruction of justice by this White House,” Deutch stated.
U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach accused Trump of abusing power.
“The latest report that President Trump asked former FBI director Comey ‘to forget about Mike Flynn’ is just the latest string of disturbing occasions of this President abusing his power,” she stated. “It’s clear we need an independent investigation of whether there is connection between the Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election and the Trump campaign.”
U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson of Miami Gardens called Coomey “a perfect witness.”
“I see bombshells dropping everywhere. And from what I understand and what I have read and seen, our president needs to take an eighth-grade civics course because he doesn’t understand government. You cannot obstruct justice. You cannot threaten people. And now that he has fired the director of the FBI, we have a perfect witness in someone who can give us all of the details that we need to know. I’m hoping that he will spill the beans, and spill his gut, and tell everything he knows about Russia’s ties to our election and the president’s ties to Russia,” said Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson (FL-24). “We have to find out the truth. And someone needs to help Mr. Trump because he doesn’t realize that he is on the brink of impeachment. People will begin to call for him to be impeached. The Republicans will have to join in because they need be on the right side of history. The world is watching us. And it’s a shame the way that we are showing up in the news every single day with some travesty involving the president. He has to understand this is not a reality show. He is the president of the United States.”
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston allowed for either obstruction of justice or abuse of executive power in her observation, calling either one disturbing.
“If President Trump pressured then-FBI Director Comey to close down an investigation into former National Security Advisor Flynn, it would represent an egregious corrosion of the rule of law. The latest reports indicate that the President possibly abused his executive power, or attempted to obstruct justice. Either one, if true, would represent one of the most disturbing allegations yet,” she said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon.
“Along with this latest revelation and President Trump’s subsequent firing of Director Comey, it is increasingly evident that Trump has interfered with an investigation into whether he or his campaign colluded with the Russian government. It is essential that we put our country and the rule of law above politics now, and allow an independent counsel to broadly investigate the Trump-Russia ties without fear of presidential influence,” Wasserman Schultz concluded.
