Trump, Republicans want new investigations of their opponents and investigators: NPR

According to the president's allies, special advocate Robert Mueller gave the landing gear a fuel injection for rocket, and Republicans now want to turn that momentum into a return on investment.

President Trump hinted on Monday that he wanted further investigations into the functioning of the FBI, the Justice Department and its political opponents.

Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C, stated that he wished to know more about "the other side of history", including the infamous meeting of the former president Bill Clinton on the tarmac at the airport with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in 2016.

And the leader of the minority in the House, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, said that the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, the representative Adam Schiff, d-Calif., Has lost his credibility and should withdraw from this post.

The Justice Ministry still needs to take action as part of its investigation of Russia, but the White House and its supporters seem to have the impression that one page has turned in their favor .

The Democratic leaders of a number of House committees in the judicial, judicial, intelligence, surveillance, and other areas have urged Attorney General William Barr on Monday to hand over Mueller's report and the evidence and documents that underlie it. later on April 2nd.

Barr announced that he would disclose as many of Mueller's findings as possible after the jury's findings, information, information likely to affect other ongoing DOJ cases. and other sensitive documents would be examined. respect this deadline.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., On Monday blocked a resolution asking Barr to release the Mueller report to the public, explaining that he thought Barr needed more time to deal with it to process sensitive information. Barr reported in his letter to Congress Sunday.

The president was in a good mood. Trump went so far as to agree when asked Monday whether Mueller – the man he accused of being partially blind and conducting a "witch hunt" "composed of" angry democrats "- had conducted the investigation on Russia with honor.

Yes, said Trump, but this story does not concern him anymore. Now, the president said that he wanted to conduct his own investigations.

"We have had very bad things and we must certainly look at these people," he said. "I've been looking at him for a long time and I say," Why were not they examined? "They lied in Congress and a lot of them, you know who they are, they did so many bad things."

Trump did not specify who he wanted to be "examined", but his remarks follow years of calls in his political rallies to prosecute Hillary Clinton and, more recently, to investigate FBI officials and of the Ministry of Justice involved in the investigation. his use of a private mail server as a secretary of state.

The FISA mandate

Investigators and lawyers who asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2016 to collect communications from former junior campaign counsel Carter Page are another target for Trump and his colleagues. allies. The court approved the surveillance.

In its application, the FBI referred to the agent as a foreign power and sought and obtained extensions of the surveillance, which suggested that it was producing foreign intelligence.

But Page has always asserted that he had done nothing wrong and that he had not been charged with any crime. Barr wrote on Sunday to members of Congress that there would be no more indictments from Mueller's office.

Some of the information cited in the original application came from former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, whose work had been underwritten by Democrats during the presidential campaign looking for information on Trump's ties. in Russia.

Steele has also compiled the infamous and partly unverified record on Trump, which has been the basis of so much back-and-forth since its publication in early 2017 – and which seems to have been compromised since Mueller's conclusion.

Graham said Monday that Washington should focus on this story again because of what it could reveal about the abuse of power by President Barack Obama's administration.

"I am 100% convinced that if the Republican party had hired Steele to go to Russia and investigate Clinton, the report would have been prepared and submitted to the Department of Justice – and you used a warrant. Judgment against a Clinton partner and the underlying information in the case turned out to be a garbage can, everyone in the world would have it on the front page, "Graham said.

Members of Congress have a duty to solve this problem and the other elements of the Mueller era, Graham suggested.

"It's, at a minimum, disturbing, whether it's illegal or not, I do not know it yet, so I'll get some answers to that," Graham said.

Schiff accused of collusion

On the other side of the Capitol, Republicans in the House have blamed Democrats who now hold the majority of the chamber – and in particular Schiff – for stirring up the flames of a story of collusion. which they claimed they had been demystified by Mueller.

Schiff and other members of his committee, as well as some Democratic senators, said that they considered that the evidence that had become public was sufficient to convince them that they had witnessed "collusion".

An example is the June 2016 meeting at which Donald Trump Jr. hosted a Russian delegation after he was promised to dirty Hillary Clinton.

Democrats have called this an obvious example. The Republicans pointed out that Trump Jr. denied having received anything of real value or taking any action after the meeting with what he had received.

Mueller's milestone Sunday suggests that Trump Jr. will not be prosecuted. McCarthy, the Republican leader of the House, said this should have consequences for Schiff.

"He should apologize to the American public and he should stop being chairman of the intelligence committee", McCarthy told Fox News.

Representative Doug Collins, the most Republican of the House Judiciary Committee, also asked Schiff to apologize.

The White House's deputy director of communications, Adam Kennedy, told NPR Monday that Schiff and others "were not just completely wrong, they were misleading the public about what the president had done and deserved to be held responsible. "

Democrats are trying to regroup

The presidency of the House Intelligence Committee by Schiff did not appear to be in danger. He retains the confidence of Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and members of the committee, but Sunday's letter from Barr has also prompted at least one major change in plans for Democrats.

The Schiff Committee had scheduled a hearing for Wednesday with Felix Sater, Trump's former business partner and his then lawyer, Michael Cohen, involved in the negotiations on a potential real estate project for Trump Tower in Moscow in 2015 and 2016 .

But this has been postponed, said a spokesman, in light of the completion of Mueller's work.

Explained the committee:

In light of the Attorney General's superficial letter and our need to understand the areas of investigation of Special Advisor Mueller and the evidence that his office has uncovered, we are working in parallel with other committees to bring senior DOJ, FBI and SCO officials to ensure: that our committee is fully and currently aware of the SCO's investigation, including all information relating to counterintelligence. By focusing on these efforts this week, we postponed Mr. Sater's open interview.

Jeremy Nadler, DN.Y., Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of Pelosi, Schiff and House, also said that he thought Americans should reserve their judgment on Trump and on the investigation of the case. special advocate until the product of Mueller's work becomes available.

Barr's letter to Congress Sunday, they said, raised more questions than answers. The Speaker and the House Democrats wish not only to review what the Special Council submitted to the GM – compared to the summary they received from Barr – but they also want to hear from him.

Nadler said he planned to soon hold a public hearing to question the Attorney General.

NPR journalist Tim Mak contributed to this report.