CAMPAIGN/FBI/INTELLIGENCE/LEGAL/POLITICS/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The public confirmation this week that federal investigators are probing links between the Russian government and associates of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign prompted Democrats to renew their call for an independent investigation into the matter.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, in an unusual disclosure, acknowledged the investigation during testimony on Capitol Hill Monday, thickening partisan lines that have formed around the issue and casting doubt on the congressional intelligence committees’ ability to complete their own probes into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
‘I don’t know whether we’ll be able to get to the finish line,’ Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday, adding that goal would consist of completing the investigation and issuing a report that members of both parties could agree upon.
‘I would rest a lot easier if I knew there was an independent commission there as a backup,’ Mr. Schiff said.
House Democrats have proposed legislation that would create a new commission modeled on the panel that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But Republican leaders want to keep the investigations where they are now, in the intelligence committees, where the GOP holds chairmanships and majorities.”
-Shane Harris, “Partisan Lines Harden on FBI Probe of Donald Trump’s Russia Ties,” The Wall Street Journal online, March 22, 2017