August 31, 2017

Trump wanted McConnell to ‘protect him’ from Russia scandal probe

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-wanted-mcconnell-protect-him-russia-scandal-probe
"At face value, the fact that the Republican president and the Republican leader in the Senate engaged in “a profane shouting match” is itself a dramatic development, to the extent that intra-party warfare may affect GOP policymakers’ ability to govern in the Trump era. But there’s another angle to this that warrants scrutiny: if Trump pressured McConnell to intervene in senators’ investigation into the Russia affair, that may bolster allegations that the president obstructed justice. To be sure, there’s already reason to suspect Trump obstructed justice when the president fired the director of the FBI to, in Trump’s words, relieve the “pressure” of the investigation into the scandal. But under federal law, the president cannot attempt to “impede” any congressional investigation, either."