Top House Dem: Obstruction should be part of Trump-Russia probe

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee is pushing to include a probe into whether President Trump sought to obstruct justice as part of his panel’s broader investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election, Politico reported Thursday.

“I think it needs to be part of the investigation,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said. “Congress has to get to the bottom of whether anybody is interfering or obstructing any investigation in any way.”

He said he was speaking with Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) about the issue. Conaway took over as the top Republican on the House Intelligence panel’s Russia investigation in April, after committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) recused himself. 

{mosads}Schiff’s call to pursue the obstruction of justice investigation comes after the top lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee said on Thursday that they would leave that probe to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is in charge of the Justice Department’s investigation into Russia election meddling.

The Senate committee will instead focus its investigation on Russian efforts to interfere in the election, as well as possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Mueller has expanded his investigation to look at whether Trump attempted to obstruct justice by reportedly pressing top intelligence officials to downplay or shut down investigations into his former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russian meddling.