Page 8A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
White House denies, defends as new bombshells hit
WASHINGTON
(AP)
— President Donald Trump
personally appealed to FBI
Director James Comey to
abandon the bureau’s investi-
gation into National Security
Adviser Michael Flynn,
according to notes disclosed
late Tuesday that Comey
wrote after the meeting. The
White House issued a furious
denial near the end of a
tumultuous day spent beating
back potentially disastrous
news reports from dawn to
dusk.
The bombshell Comey
news came as the belea-
guered administration was
still struggling mightily to
explain Monday’s revela-
tion that the president had
disclosed highly classified
information to the Russian
foreign minister and the
country’s ambassador to the
United States.
Defending
Trump’s
actions, officials played down
the importance and secrecy
of the information, which
had been supplied by Israel
under an intelligence-sharing
agreement, and Trump
himself said he had “an
absolute right” as president
to share “facts pertaining
to terrorism” and airline
safety with Russia. Yet U.S.
allies and some members of
Congress expressed concern
bordering on alarm.
As for Comey, whom
Trump fired last week,
the FBI director wrote in
a memo after a February
meeting at the White House
that the new president had
asked him to shut down the
FBI’s investigation of Flynn
and his Russian contacts,
said a person who had
read the memo. The Flynn
investigation was part of a
broader probe into Russian
interference in last year’s
presidential election.
Comey’s memo, an
apparent effort to create a
paper trail of his contacts
with the White House, would
be the clearest evidence to
date that the president has
tried to influence the investi-
gation.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz,
Republican chairman of the
House oversight committee,
sent a letter to the FBI on
Tuesday requesting that
it turn over all documents
Fox News host
up for press
secretary job
NEW YORK (AP) —
Fox News host Kimberly
Guilfoyle is in conversations
with the Trump administration
about replacing Sean Spicer as
White House press secretary.
The former first lady of San
Francisco told the Mercury
News in San Jose, California,
on Monday that taking that
job or having
another press
role in the
White House
has
been
“raised by a
number of
people” in
the Trump Guilfoyle
administra-
tion.
“I’m
a
patriot, and
it would be
an honor to
serve
the
c o u n t r y, ” Spicer
Guilfoyle
said. “I think it’d be a fasci-
nating job. It’s a challenging
job, and you need someone
really determined and focused,
a great communicator in there
with deep knowledge to be
able to handle that position.”
Guilfoyle, who is one
of the co-hosts of the Fox
News show “The Five,” said
she’s regularly in touch with
members of the administra-
tion as part of her job.
The network said in a
statement that Guilfoyle “is
a valued member of the FOX
News primetime lineup, and
is under a long-term contract
with the network.”
Guilfoyle, 48, is a former
San Francisco and Los Angeles
prosecutor who was married
for four years to California Lt.
Gov. Gavin Newsom. The two
separated in 2005 when she
moved to New York to start a
career in television.
She was originally consid-
ered for press secretary during
the presidential transition, but
the job went to Spicer, who
was spokesman for the Repub-
lican National Committee.
Contradictions create
credibility gap for aides
AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File
In this May 8 file photo, then-FBI Director James Comey speaks to the Anti-Defa-
mation League National Leadership Summit in Washington. The White House
is disputing a report that President Donald Trump asked Comey to shut down an
investigation into ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn.
and recordings that detail
communications
between
Comey and Trump. He said
he would give the FBI a
week and then “if we need a
subpoena we’ll do it.”
The panel’s top Demo-
crat, Elijah Cummings of
Maryland, a constant Trump
critic, called the allegation of
Trump pressure on Comey
“explosive” and said “it
appears like a textbook case
of criminal obstruction of
justice.”
Republicans
weren’t
going that far. But John
McCain, chairman of the
Senate Armed Services
Committee, said the Trump-
Russia reports were “deeply
disturbing” and could impede
allies’ willingness to share
intelligence with the U.S.
Mitch McConnell, the
Republican leader of the
Senate, said simply: “It
would be helpful to have less
drama emanating from the
White House.”
The person who described
the Comey memo to the AP
was not authorized to discuss
it by name and spoke on
condition of anonymity. The
existence of the memo was
first reported Tuesday by The
New York Times.
The
White
House
vigorously denied it all.
“While the president has
repeatedly expressed his
view that General Flynn is a
decent man who served and
protected our country, the
president has never asked
Mr. Comey or anyone else
to end any investigation,
including any investigation
involving General Flynn,” a
White House statement said.
Trump fired Flynn on
Feb. 13, on grounds that he
had misled Vice President
Mike Pence and other offi-
cials about his contacts with
Russians.
The intensifying drama
comes as Trump is set to
embark Friday on his first
foreign trip, which had been
optimistically viewed by
some aides as an opportunity
to reset an administration
floundering under an inexpe-
rienced president.
When
Trump
fired
Comey, he said he did so
based on Comey’s very
public handling of the Hillary
Clinton email probe and how
it affected his leadership
of the FBI. But the White
House has provided differing
accounts of the firing. And
lawmakers have alleged that
the sudden ouster was an
attempt to stifle the bureau’s
investigation into Trump
associates’ ties to Russia’s
meddling in the campaign.
Mark Warner of Virginia,
top Democrat on the Senate
intelligence committee, said
he would ask Comey for
additional material as part
of that panel’s investigation.
“Memos, transcripts, tapes
— the list keeps getting
longer,” he said.
WASHINGTON (AP) tion has made it harder for
— When the report burst aides to effectively advocate
forth alleging that President for the president.
Donald Trump had revealed
“It’s always a hard job,
highly classified informa- but there’s no question in
tion to Russian diplomats, my mind the president has
the White House quickly made it harder for his imme-
dispatched Trump’s national diate staff, which is there
security adviser
to support him,”
to declare that the
said Ari Fleischer,
story “as reported
press
secretary
is false.”
to
Republican
By
the
President George
next
morning,
W. Bush.
however,
H.R.
Trump himself
McMaster ’s
has raised doubts
pronouncement
about the credi-
was undercut by
bility of what his
Trump himself,
representatives
making the aide McMaster
say. He tweeted
the latest to face a
last week that
public conflict with the boss since he’s a very active
in a White House where president, it’s not always
credibility problems are possible for his surrogates
becoming an occupational to speak with perfect accu-
hazard.
racy. He also suggested
Yes, the president said, “maybe the best thing to
he had given information to do would be to cancel all
the Russians. But there was future ‘press briefings’ and
nothing wrong with that, hand out written responses
he insisted. In two tweets, for the sake of accuracy???”
Trump said the conversation
White House Press
with the diplomats was an Secretary Sean Spicer got
acceptable way to provide off to a rocky start with beat
facts related to airline reporters on the second day
safety and terrorism, and he of the administration when
declared he had “the absolute he delivered a tirade about
right” to share the details.
reporting on the Inaugura-
Still, the day-after tion Day crowds. Trump had
accounts prompted ques- already blasted the media
tions about McMaster’s over its reports — accurate
earlier comments on the — about the numbers.
story that was first reported
Kellyanne
Conway,
by The Washington Post.
counselor to the president,
These types of conflicts has also tangled with the
are a near-constant in the media over the believ-
Trump
administration, ability of her statements,
which has tangled over saying earlier this year in a
accounts involving issues television appearance that
ranging from the size of Flynn had Trump’s full
Trump’s inaugural crowd confidence, hours before
to the firing of former Trump fired him. She also
National Security Adviser referred to a “Bowling
Michael Flynn and Trump’s Green Massacre” that
claims
that
President never occurred.
Barack Obama wiretapped
And Vice President Mike
Trump Tower.
Pence insisted Flynn had
Trump has frequently not discussed Obama-era
tasked aides and surrogates Russian sanctions with the
with delivering apparently Russian ambassador to the
false or misleading state- U.S., Sergey Kislyak. That
ments or to aggressively was untrue, something the
argue points that the presi- White House blamed on
dent later contradicts.
Flynn when Trump fired
The conflicted informa- him a month later.