Trump's threat backfires: House Democrats begin investigation

https://www.cleveland.com/expo/news/g66l-2019/02/a30408a5945792/house-democrats-begin-investigation-of-trump-am-news-links.html

House Democrats, armed with subpoena power, on Wednesday announced a broader-than expected investigation into Trump's ties to Russia, Saudi Arabia and just about anywhere else. And criminal probes are digging ever deeper into the global business record of the real estate billionaire who became president and therefore opened himself to painful scrutiny.

Trump's red line -- that no one should delve into his or his family's personal finances beyond a relationship with Russia -- has been snapped.

So it's no wonder that he offered a glimpse of seething inner fury at the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, coining a Nixonian couplet to deliver Democrats a warning that worked on multiple levels. (CNN)

The House intelligence committee will launch a broad new investigation looking at Russian interference in the 2016 election and Donald Trump’s foreign financial interests, the chairman, Adam Schiff, announced on Wednesday, moving ahead with the aggressive oversight that Democrats have promised now that they are in the majority.

Schiff said the investigation will include “the scope and scale” of Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election, the “extent of any links and/or coordination” between Russians and Trump’s associates, whether foreign actors have sought to hold leverage over Trump or his family and associates, and whether anyone has sought to obstruct any of the relevant investigations.

"We’re going to do our jobs and the president needs to do his,” Schiff said. “Our job involves making sure that the policy of the United States is being driven by the national interest, not by any financial entanglement, financial leverage or other form of compromise.”

The California Democrat also announced a delay in an upcoming closed-door interview with Trump’s former fixer and personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, “in the interests of the investigation”. The interview was originally scheduled for Friday. It will now be held on 28 February, Schiff said.

Schiff said he could not speak about the reason for the delay. Hours after the meeting was pushed back, a document was filed, and then deleted, under seal in the criminal case against Cohen brought by the special counsel Robert Mueller’s office. The court’s docket did not contain any details about the nature of the document. A later notice said the document had been “incorrectly filed in this case”.

So, basically Democrats had stayed away from investigating Trump, but after Trump threatened about it in his SOTU - democrats now have gotten angry and just started various investigations, including one pretty big one - Trumps taxes, which Trump has been hiding.

Trump's attempt to get democrats not to investigate him during the state of the union speech were so goddamn childish that I personally found it insulting.

FYI trump IS childish.....petty.........etc.

What's a better way to show the other party that you want to work together, than by threatening them to not investigate you? That's the art of the deal. Brilliant.

Damn, Trump is going crazy on Twitter today:

“Wah wah wah.....poor me, I actually have to be held accountable to all my previous corruption. Witch hunt!”

Good. Investigate that mother****er up the ass. Anyone with a semblance of human nature, decency and common sense knows that Trump is rotten to his core. He has been his entire life. Too bad for him that he’s no longer completely protected by his gutless cowards in the GOP who will destroy this country to further their own interests.

Witch hunt.

As others have said before, this witch hunt is uncovering a lot of witches lol.

"As a man who is completely innocent officer, I ask that you DON'T under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES look in my trunk. Otherwise there will be consequences!"

Essentially.

I find it interesting how similar Trump is to Nixon.

• Throws his aids under the bus
• Tons of indictments (Trump has more)
• Roger Stone worked on both campaigns
• Both mentioned an end to the investigations on their SOTU
• They both said the press is the enemy of the people and hated em'

It is starting to get rediculous. The best intelligence agencies in the world can't find anything on Trump. Even the TC said they are only doing it out of spite now.

@joshrmeyer: "It is starting to get rediculous. The best intelligence agencies in the world can't find anything on Trump."

Are we talking about the same Trump?

@mattbbpl: Trump... not the people around him. Have they prove he did anything wrong yet? All I hear is allegations and impeachment threats. If he did something, I hope they find it. If not, I hope they can focus on other matters.

Not starting, it´s been like that for a while now.

But the wrong forum for those kinds opinions, Democrats are still expecting to collect a ton of dirt they can either use in 2020 or once they begin the impeachment process in the House.

@joshrmeyer: Like the fraud?

Everything leads to him, but it took 2 years to find something on Nixon and that was less complex than this.

im going to run for Prez in 2020

+merk him

Best intelligence agencies are still working on it, it will be months before we get to see the fully results of the FBI's investigation. But, we already have several convictions of individuals in his inner circle as a result of the probing. Signs are pointing in a pretty clear direction.

And as for the topic, if there's no crime, then there's no issue searching, right? The intelligence committee will do what is exactly their job and why they were elected, find nothing, and move on with their lives. What is so wrong with letting them get on with it if there's nothing to find?

I actually didn't read your stupid right-wing claim that they are doing out of spite. The democrats have always wanted to start investigation, but they were trying to be gentle and nice. Trump decided once again to open his big orange mouth and threaten them, so the cheating husband gets what is coming for him. Also, he's the president who's had the most ammount of resignations and indicments close to him. I still remember the whole

"I never have any business dealing with Russia"

to now

"I did, but there was no collusion"

Lol, Trump fanboys love em' lies.

It's an ongoing investigation.

It's like you guys don't even understand what the term investigation means, nor how any of this operates. This investigation isn't going to be forthcoming with its findings until the final report is released. Unless something is leaked by the media, there is procedure that is adhered to, for a variety of reasons. That that procedure doesn't reveal everything condemning the guilty at the moment it's discovered doesn't mean guilt hasn't been discovered. The President of the United States is one of, if not the, most powerful men on the planet, and no one's going to come out in indictment until guilt can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

You'd have to be a moron to believe that the longer this goes on that that's somehow an indication that one is absolved of guilt or that none exists. Guilt, especially when it's so multi-tiered in its dynamics, takes a while and much effort to establish, especially when you're dealing with people of immense power. That's what they're doing. You guys in support of Trump bitch and moan about the burden of evidence, how nothing's been proven, and then you in the next breath don't even afford the opportunity and time to accrue it in its substantiation.

You can't say you demand evidence to prove guilt while at the same time denying and belittling the procedure to get it because it hasn't fit into your particular timeframe of what is fair. Make up your minds.

Dear god dems are still going on about Russians? I don't think they've ever been this pathetic before, its sad.

@blackballs: "I actually didn't read your stupid right-wing claim that they are doing out of spite." ===

"democrats now have gotten angry and just started various investigations"<---- Your words.

So many nothing burgers. No convictions or indictments have come of it!

Hey, you got it all wrong. It shouldn't be necessary with an investigation to prove someone is guilty. :P

I don't see a problem with people investigating things if you are a prime minister or president of the USA.

Well, that is your opinion

To be fair at this point, this is not the forum to debate anything else but Trump is guilty and it´s just a matter of time...

But let´s see what happens in 2020.

‘Thank you for the second term, Democrats!’

-Trump

You waste people’s time and money with these investigations that go nowhere and the vast majority of the country is against late term abortions and socialism.

Sad that any American that sees red flags toward the conduct of a political person.........let alone the president............buries his head for party bias and doesn't give a damn if corruption or compromise is there.

Also the so-called tax cuts are hitting his voters. So he will lose more votes and you STILL think an unpopular candidate and now president is getting re-elected even as his voters depart/.

Delusion.

2020 will definitely be really interesting.

After 4 years of Trump being dangerously incompetent, and 4 years of him doing nothing but arouse suspicions of corruption/collision/fraud/etc., it will be fascinating to see how many people still blindly vote for him.

I guess it'll prove just how important it is to vote for "our guy", rather than for someone who will actually do a semi-decent job running the country.