Source: Time
President Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey rocked Washington on Tuesday, raising questions about the future of the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia and potentially setting off a chain of events that could envelop his administration.
Comey, whose investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server helped lift Trump into the White House, was leading the federal counterintelligence investigation into whether advisers to the President had sought to collude with Russian officials in their efforts to swing the 2016 election. The ouster of the nation’s top cop prompted comparisons to Watergate, as Democrats pilloried Trump for sidelining the official overseeing a probe that could threaten his presidency.
But the shock move is fraught with political peril as well. Calling the firing a cover-up, a slew of Democrats called for the appointment of a special prosecutor, who would have broad authority to investigate the Trump campaign and administration. At minimum, such a probe would indefinitely extend questions about Trump’s ties to Russia, and it could result in criminal charges.
“This is Nixonian,” said Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, one of several Democrats who likened the move to the so-called Saturday Night Massacre, in which President Richard Nixon fired the special prosecutor appointed to the Watergate investigation, prompting top Justice Department officials to resign in protest. Said Senator Richard Blumenthal on CNN: “We face a looming constitutional crisis.”