WASHINGTON -- Members of key congressional committees pledged Sunday to proceed with aggressive investigations into Russia's meddling in the U.S. election and any ties with Donald Trump's campaign, saying the American people also need a full explanation of why former FBI Director James Comey was ousted.
Comey was fired by Trump earlier this month. The former director agreed to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee after the Memorial Day holiday.
A member of that committee, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said he wants to press Comey on whether he ever believed the White House was interfering with his work, in light of a spate of news reports that Comey had kept detailed records of his interactions with Trump.
The New York Times and other news outlets reported last week on a Comey memo indicating Trump had urged him to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Another Times report said Trump had told Russian officials in a private meeting at the Oval Office that firing Comey had relieved "great pressure" on him.
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"Did [Comey] keep these memos? What do those memos say? And why did he write it? And how did he feel? Did he ever feel like he was being put in a position where he couldn't do his job?" Rubio asked. "There's no doubt that that's the questions that are going to get asked, and asked repeatedly."
Rubio, who appeared Sunday on CNN's State of the Union and CBS' Face the Nation, said White House officials had told him they had no transcripts or notes of Trump's meeting with Russian officials but that "apparently someone has discussed them or leaked them."
"This cloud is impacting everything else," Rubio said, describing a number of questions, such as possible obstruction of justice, that are hanging over the White House. "So we need to get over this once and for all."
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Intelligence Committee, said she also plans to press Comey regarding what was discussed with Trump about Flynn and whether he was asked by Trump to alter the FBI investigation. The California Democrat said public hearings should provide clarity on what has been a flurry of apparently contradictory comments by many of the parties involved.
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"I really think that rather than have all these memorandums and issues circulating around, that we need to put the facts before the American people," she said on Face the Nation. "Did the president fire Comey because of his investigation and was he worried about what the investigation might conclude? If so, that borders on a very serious charge."
"And it's got to come from Director Comey himself," Feinstein said.
Leaders of the House Oversight Committee, Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah and Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, both appearing on ABC's This Week, said they would demand Comey's notes. Cummings also is urging Chaffetz, who plans to resign from Congress next month, to subpoena the White House for any documents relating to Flynn.
Chaffetz said he expects to speak with Comey today and that if there are any notes of White House meetings, "we're certainly pursuing them."
"There have been so many lies, so many contradictions," Cummings said, adding that he expects congressional investigations to proceed fully after the Justice Department last week appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to head an investigation into possible Russian coordination with the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.
Referring to the sequence of events leading to Comey's firing, Cummings added, "I think that there may be quite a few people that may have some problems with the law."
The New York Times reported Friday that Trump called Comey "a nut job" during a White House meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and that the firing took pressure off the president. The Times cited a leaked document summarizing that meeting.
Asked for his reaction to the report about Trump's comments to the Russian officials, Chaffetz said he doesn't know what was said but added, "I hope that's not true."
Chaffetz said he would like to think that Trump would beat the Russians "over the head" about allegations they interfered with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. National security adviser H.R. McMaster, also on This Week, repeatedly declined to say whether confronting Russia over election hacking was part of the conversation with the Russian delegation.
The White House has insisted that a "thorough investigation will confirm that there was no collusion between the campaign and any foreign entity." It has not denied the Times report on Trump's comments about Comey to the Russians the day after the FBI director's firing. But White House spokesman Sean Spicer has called the president's rhetoric part of his deal-making, contending that Comey had created "unnecessary pressure" on Trump's ability to negotiate with Russia on a variety of issues.
McMaster refused to reveal details of the conversation, which he said was privileged and confidential. He said it is difficult to understand the scope of the conversation based on "a few lines" of notes leaked to members of the press. McMaster sought to reframe the conversation between Trump and the Russian officials after a Washington Post report revealed that Trump shared classified information with the Russians in that meeting.
But McMaster did not deny the reports about that meeting, including that Trump revealed classified intelligence information and the president's comments about Comey. McMaster said only that Trump was speaking about his desire to find common ground with the Russians.
"I don't remember exactly what the president said," McMaster said. "The gist of the conversation was that the president feels as if he is hamstrung in his ability to work with Russia to find areas of cooperation because this has been obviously so much in the news. And that was the intention of that portion of that conversation."
Cummings said he hoped Chaffetz would issue subpoenas compelling the White House to release all documentation of Trump's meeting with the two Russian officials.
"I think documents will help us to ferret out exactly what's the truth and what's a lie," Cummings said.
On the Comey memos, Chaffetz noted that no one has seen the documents.
"There's been an awful lot written and said about it, but I don't even know that the Department of Justice has them," Chaffetz said. "Maybe Director Comey has them. I don't know where they reside. I don't know if there are documents. But we're certainly pursuing them."
Information for this article was contributed by Hope Yen of The Associated Press, Andrew Harris and Ben Brody of Bloomberg News and Kelsey Snell of The Washington Post.
A Section on 05/22/2017