Congress to investigate new 'powerful evidence' of Trump's crimes

Trump will be investigated by at least two committees in the House of Representatives in light of a new report alleging that he directed his personal lawyer to lie to Congress, a federal crime.

Buzzfeed reported, based on information from two federal law enforcement sources, that special counsel Robert Mueller has evidence that Trump “personally instructed” Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the details of negotiations to open a Trump Tower in Moscow, Russia. This evidence reportedly includes texts, emails, and interviews with other witnesses, not just Cohen’s testimony.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC the newly uncovered information is “powerful evidence of collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives.

“He is asking Michael Cohen to lie because the truth would expose what was going on with the Russians early on in the candidacy,” Swalwell said.

“We know that the President has engaged in a long pattern of obstruction,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the House Judiciary committee, wrote on Twitter. “Directing a subordinate to lie to Congress is a federal crime. The @HouseJudiciary Committee’s job is to get to the bottom of it, and we will do that work.”

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement: “The allegation that the President of the United States may have suborned perjury before our committee in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia is among the most serious to date. We will do what’s necessary to find out if it’s true.”

Cohen is going to prison because he lied about Trump’s Moscow deal to both the Senate and the House.

During the presidential campaign, Trump claimed that he had no dealings with Russia. But this was a lie, and reporting has indicated that he may have been involved in negotiations with Russia over his tower as late as November 2016.

Trump had at least 10 face-to-face meetings with Cohen about the deal, Buzzfeed reports. Meanwhile, his campaign team is known to have had over 100 contacts with Russian operatives during the campaign and transition.

Trump appears to be at the head of a wide-ranging corrupt and criminal enterprise. Investigations have uncovered evidence of his personal involvement in numerous unethical and illegal dealings. For over two years, Republicans in Congress effectively gave him a complete pass for this, and instead rewarded a political ally and the head of their party.

This is a large part of why voters turned over control of the House to Democrats.

Now the Democratic heads of committees tasked with upholding the law and conducting oversight of the executive branch are finally going to have Congress do the job it should have done long ago.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.