By Eric Stock
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, said it’s too early to call for independent investigator to probe allegations that President Trump tried to get FBI Director James Comey to end his investigation of fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Patti’s interview with LaHood on WJBC.
PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Patti’s interview with politics and government expert Bob Bradley from Illinois State University.
“If there was a request by the president to Comey to drop the Comey investigation, I think that’s a very serious allegation,” LaHood said.
LaHood and fellow Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger said Comey should testify before Congress to explain the allegations.
“These are very serious allegations that effect our national security and they carry very real consequences,” Kinzinger said.
Many Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin have insisted that an independent prosecutor review the matter.
“Evidence that President Trump asked FBI Director Comey to stop the investigation of his National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, again appears to cross the line into the obstruction of justice,” Durbin said. “No one – not the National Security Advisor or the President – is above the law. When will a Republican senator step out of the shadows and join us in calling for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to bring clear-eyed, non-partisan justice to this tangled web of deception?”
LaHood said he believes Congress can handle the investigation fairly. He added the steady drum beat of allegations against the president are getting in the way of doing the people’s work.
“I wished that the president was more disciplined and focused more on being presidential in this job,” LaHood said. “Every day that you have a new news story, that distracts from the important work we need to be doing,”
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
