Wertheimer statement: Trump’s Wrongful Firing of FBI Director Requires Outside Counsel

 

President Trump’s wrongful firing yesterday of FBI Director James Comey has now eliminated the person who was leading an investigation of the possible involvement of President Trump’s presidential campaign in Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign – an investigation that could possibly reach President Trump himself.

Attorney General Sessions’ recommendation to President Trump that Comey be fired violated Sessions’ commitment to the American people that he would not play any role in the Russia investigation that Comey was leading. Sessions himself is a potential subject of the FBI investigation.

The fact that White House spokespeople are now claiming it is time to move on from the Russia investigation reeks of a cover up effort to prevent the American people from knowing the role President Trump’s campaign, and possibly Trump himself, may have played in Russia’s actions to disrupt the 2016 presidential election and to undermine our democracy.

The integrity of the Justice Department is now squarely on the line. The Department currently has no public credibility to conduct its most important investigation since Watergate and to determine what, if any, criminal prosecutions should be pursued.

Democracy 21 calls on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to move immediately to exercise his powers under Justice Department regulations to appoint an independent special counsel to lead the Justice Department investigation.

Without such an appointment, Rosenstein will leave the Justice Department under a dark cloud and the American people will be able to rightly conclude that the Department is abandoning its responsibility to enforce the nation’s laws, no matter where the facts may lead.