Sen. Maggie Hassan said the latest round of news out of Washington only heightens the need for independent investigations into the dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey and Russia’s involvement in the 2016 elections.
As some of her Senate colleagues have started to speculate openly about whether President Trump’s actions around Comey could be grounds for impeachment, Hassan said the Senate shouldn’t rule anything out at this point — but it’s important to get the facts, first.
“I think it's really important that we not take any option off the table but it is really important we get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible,” Hassan said Wednesday afternoon.
Asked whether the President’s reported interactions with Comey would constitute an obstruction of justice as some other senators have alleged, Hassan declined to take a definitive stance but reiterated the need for more thorough scrutiny of the situation.
“I don't think it's appropriate to comment on hypotheticals,” Hassan said. “I think the concerns expressed by a number of people that this could constitute obstruction of justice is one of the reasons we need to see the memo, we need to hear from Director Comey and we need to have an independent special prosecutor who can get to the bottom of this.”
Aside from calling for a special investigator, Hassan joined three other senators last week calling on the Inspector General for the Department of Justice to look into whether the agency in how it handled Comey’s dismissal, and “whether there was political interference with the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russian agents to disrupt the 2016 presidential election.”
"I think it's really important that the Department of Justice do its own inquiry through its Inspector General, to consider among other issues whether Attorney General Sessions violated the terms of his recusal," Hassan said Wednesday.
All four members of New Hampshire’s all-Democratic Congressional delegation are on the record supporting some kind of independent investigation into Russia’s role in the campaign.
