Page 4 - ARUBA TODAY

A4 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 1 June 2017
House committee issues subpoenas; Comey OK’d to testify

Continued from front the Justice Department.
Subpoenas were ap-
The associate did say that proved Wednesday for Fly-
Robert Mueller, whom the nn and his company, Flynn
Justice Department ap- Intel Group, and Cohen,
pointed earlier this month and his firm, Michael D. Co-
to lead the government’s hen & Associates.
inquiry, is allowing Comey Cohen, who had refused
to make certain state- an earlier request for in-
ments. formation, saying it was
Lawmakers are likely to “not capable of being
ask Comey about his inter- answered,” told the AP
actions with Trump as the on Tuesday that he would
bureau pursued its investi- comply with subpoenas,
gation into his campaign’s should they be issued. He
contacts. said he has “nothing to
Associates have said Com- hide.” The subpoenas sent
ey wrote memos describ- to government agencies
ing certain interactions were related to Trump’s
with Trump that gave him complaints that Obama
pause in the months after administration officials had
the election, including de- asked, for political reasons,
tails of a dinner in which to be told the names of
he claimed the president White House press secretary Sean Spicer speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House Trump associates docu-
asked him to pledge his in Washington, Tuesday, May 30, 2017. At a Wednesday briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer said mented in intelligence
loyalty, and a request to inquiries about the Russia investigation must be directed to Marc Kasowitz, another of Trump’s per- reports. Officials only “un-
sonal attorneys. It marked the first time the White House had officially acknowledged that outside
shut down the investiga- counsel had been retained. mask” the identities of
tion of Flynn. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Americans for certain rea-
A spokesman for Mueller, sons — for example, if the
a former FBI director, de- ey’s testimony has been dicate that date is fast ap- The House panel pursuing name of a person is need-
clined to comment. Muel- set. proaching. its own investigation of the ed to understand the intel-
ler’s separate probe could The Associated Press re- A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign and pos- ligence being provided.
conceivably look at the ported earlier this month committee’s chairman, sible Russia ties has also Another senior committee
circumstances surrounding that Comey planned to Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., sought information from aide said any subpoenas
Comey’s firing. testify before the Senate said the committee wel- Comey, asking the FBI to related to the unmasking
Congress is currently out committee after Memorial comes Comey’s testimony, turn over documents relat- issue would have been
of session. It resumes next Day, but the approval from but declined to comment ed to his interactions with sent by committee Chair-
Tuesday. No date for Com- Mueller to do so could in- further. both the White House and man Rep. Devin Nunes, R-
Calif., who recused himself
from the Russia investiga-
tion after being criticized
for being too close to the
White House. The commit-
tee aide, who wasn’t au-
thorized to discuss the issue
and spoke only on condi-
tion of anonymity, said the
action would have been
taken without agreement
from the Democratic mi-
nority on the committee.
Trump has repeatedly dis-
missed allegations that his
campaign collaborated
with Russia ahead of the
presidential election. Early
Wednesday morning, the
president tweeted “Witch
Hunt!” in reference to tes-
timony by Comey and
former CIA director John
Brennan before Congress
on the topic.
Also Wednesday, a Jus-
tice Department official
confirmed that Mueller
had named a top Justice
Department official to his
team. Andrew Weissmann
had been head of the
criminal division’s fraud
section since 2015.q