Quote:The President’s reaction to the continuing Russia investigation.
In February 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions began to assess whether he had to recuse himself from campaign-related investigations because of his role in the Trump Campaign. In early March, the President told White House Counsel Donald McGahn to stop sessions from recusing. And after Sessions announced his recusal on March 2, the President expressed anger at the decision and told advisers that he should have an Attorney General who would protect him. That weekend, the President took Sessions aside at an event and urged him to “unrecuse.” Later in March, Comey publicly disclosed at a congressional hearing that the FBI was investigating “the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election,” including any links or coordination between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign. In the following days, the President reached out to the Director of National Intelligence and the leaders of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) to ask them what they could do to publicly dispel the suggestion that the President had any connection to the Russian election-interference effort. The President also twice called Comey directly, notwithstanding guidance from McGahn to avoid direct contacts with the Department of Justice. Comey had previously assured the President that the FBI was not investigating him personally, and the President asked Comey to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation by saying that publicly.
Again the Trump is taking actions to interfere with the investigation and public opinion, again showing his clear intent.
Quote:The President’s termination of Comey.
On May 3, 2017, Comey testified in a congressional hearing, but declined to answer questions about whether the President was personally under investigation. Within days, the President decide to terminate Comey. The President insisted that the termination letter, which was written for public release, state that Comey had informed the President that he was not under investigation. The day of the firing, the White House maintained that Comey’s termination resulted from independent recommendations from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General that Comey should be discharged from mishandling the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But the President had decided to fire Comey before hearing form the Department of Justice. The day after firing Comey, the President told Russian officials that he had “faced great pressure because of Russia,” which had been “taken off” by Comey’s firing. The next day, the President acknowledged in a television interview that he was going to fire Comey regardless of the Department of Justice’s recommendation and that when he “decided to just do it,” he was thinking that “this thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.”
In response to a question about whether he was angry with Comey about the Russia investigation, the President said, “As far as I’m concerned, I want that thing to be absolutely done properly,” adding that firing Comey “might even lengthen out the investigation.”
So again, we have Trump firing people who won't break the rules and do what he wants. What he wants is to prevent the investigation from continuing, "obstructing it" if you will, again showing his clear intent towards this matter.
Quote:The appointment of Special Counsel and efforts to remove him.
On May 17, 22017, the Acting Attorney General for the Russia investigation appointed a Special Counsel to conduct the investigation and related matters. The President reacted to news that Special Counsel had been appointed by telling advisers that it was “the end of his presidency” and demanding that Sessions resign. Sessions submitted his resignation but the President ultimately did not accept it. The President told aides that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and suggested that Special Counsel therefore could not serve. The President’ advisers told him the asserted conflicts were meritless and had already been considered by the Department of Justice.
Trump continues to make the claim publicly and via Twitter of the conflicts of interest with the Special Council, again showing that even though he'd been told the facts, he still wanted to discredit and try to halt, or
obstruct, the investigation.
Quote:On June 14, 2017, the media reported that the Special Counsel’s Office was investigating whether the President had obstructed justice. Press reports called this “a major turning point” in the investigation: while Comey had told the President he was not under investigation, following Comey’s firing, the President now was under investigation. The President reacted to his news with a series of tweets criticizing the Department of Justice and the special Counsel’s investigation. On June 17, 2107, the President called McGahn at home and directed him to call the Acting Attorney General and say that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed. McGahn did not carry about the direction, however, deciding that the would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre.
That whole section could be highlighted, no comment needed.
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