Following a NY Times report this week that phone records and intercepted calls show that Donald Trump’s campaign staff and associates had been in ongoing contact with senior Russian intelligence officials through the entire year before the election, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham called for convening a select committee to investigate the extent of those ties.
“It’s time for us to look into all things related to Russia’s involvement in 2016,” Graham told reporters, according to the NY Post Wednesday.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told MSNBC’s Morning Joe that disgraced National Security Adviser Michael Flynn should testify before Congress. “Let’s get everything out as quickly as possible on this Russia issue,” Corker said, adding, “Maybe there’s a problem that obviously goes much deeper than what we now suspect.”
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer On Tuesday, said Flynn had been asked to resigned because he “misled the vice president and others” regarding his phone conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Meanwhile, some on both sides of the aisle in Congress have been wondering if Flynn’s discussion of policy with a foreign official while another president was in still in the White House might constitute violations greater than mere “misleading.”
It should be noted that the news about a possible probe coincided with President Trump’s public suggestion that Israel hold back on expanding Jewish settlements.