“La sabiduría de la vida consiste en la eliminación de lo no esencial. En reducir los problemas de la filosofía a unos pocos solamente: el goce del hogar, de la vida, de la naturaleza, de la cultura”.
Lin Yutang
Cervantes
Hoy es el día más hermoso de nuestra vida, querido Sancho; los obstáculos más grandes, nuestras propias indecisiones; nuestro enemigo más fuerte, el miedo al poderoso y a nosotros mismos; la cosa más fácil, equivocarnos; la más destructiva, la mentira y el egoísmo; la peor derrota, el desaliento; los defectos más peligrosos, la soberbia y el rencor; las sensaciones más gratas, la buena conciencia, el esfuerzo para ser mejores sin ser perfectos, y sobretodo, la disposición para hacer el bien y combatir la injusticia dondequiera que esté.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES Don Quijote de la Mancha.
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17 de mayo de 2017
Trump Faces Deepest Crisis of Presidency With Comey Memo
by
Chris Strohm
and
Steven T. Dennis
Democrats suggest the president may have obstructed justice
Memo said to detail Trump request to drop Flynn investigation
Donald Trump
is facing the deepest crisis of his presidency after contents of a memo
written by James Comey when he was FBI director surfaced Tuesday,
alleging that the president asked him to drop an investigation of former
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.The White House was
already on the defensive over the president’s firing of Comey a week ago
and over a report Monday that Trump disclosed sensitive intelligence to
Russian officials. Then another political bombshell exploded Tuesday
night.
Trump and Comey in January.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
After
a conversation Comey had with Trump in February, a day after Flynn was
ousted for what the White House said were misleading accounts of his
conversations with Russia’s U.S. ambassador, the FBI director wrote a
memo documenting the Oval Office meeting. In it, Comey said the
president asked him to abandon the Flynn investigation, according to a
person who was given a copy of the memo and spoke on condition of
anonymity.
“I hope you can let this go,” Trump told the FBI director,
according to the memo as cited by the New York Times, which first
reported its existence. The contents of the memo have subsequently been
confirmed by other news organizations, including Bloomberg, although the
memo itself has not yet surfaced publicly.
Question of Influence
The
revelation raised questions about whether the president sought to
influence the FBI at the same time the agency is investigating Russian
interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Moscow by
Trump associates. The memo’s emergence, after Trump fired Comey, had
congressional Democrats raising the specter that the president engaged
in obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense.
In his first
public appearance since the Comey memo was revealed, Trump made no
mention of it but used a commencement address to the U.S. Coast Guard
Academy to air his irritation and boast about what he’s accomplished in
the short period he’s been in office. QuickTakeYour Guide to the Russia Investigations
He
told the academy graduates that life isn’t always fair and that the
best response is to “put your head down and fight, fight, fight” and, in
an unusual aside for such an event, portrayed himself as the victim of
unscrupulous opponents.
“Look at the way I’ve been treated lately, especially by the
media,” Trump said at the academy in New London, Connecticut. “No
politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been
treated worse or more unfairly.”
No one from the administration has responded on the
record about the Comey memo. Instead, the White House press office
released an emailed statement -- not on official letterhead -- denying
Comey’s version of events. Trump “has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone
else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving
General Flynn,” according to the statement. The description in the
purported memo “is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the
conversation between the President and Mr. Comey,” it said.
One
frustrated senior administration official questioned why Comey didn’t
complain to Department of Justice officials or to Congress if he thought
Trump was trying to impede the Flynn investigation.Comey wrote
the memo documenting the conversation with Trump because he was uneasy
about the president’s request, even though the FBI director didn’t
consider it a direct threat, said the person who received a copy. Trump
said to Comey that Flynn was a good guy, to which Comey agreed, the
person said.
It wasn’t immediately clear who within the FBI
received or saw the memo, or whether acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe
was among them. The White House pointed to congressional testimony by
McCabe last week in which he said there has been no effort to impede the
FBI’s probe.
The FBI’s investigation is broader than just Flynn,
and it’s possible McCabe was referring to the overall probe, the person
said.
Records Sought
The chairman of the House Oversight
Committee, Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz, wrote a letter to McCabe on
Tuesday demanding all FBI memos and other records documenting
communications between Comey and Trump by May 24.
FBI spokeswoman Carol Cratty declined to comment.
The turmoil spilled over
into financial markets, as the S&P 500 Index slumped to a
three-week low, the CBOE Volatility Index spiked the most since January,
and Treasuries rallied with gold.
Congressional Republicans have
largely backed Trump through the rocky initial months of his
administration, but the events of the past week -- Comey’s firing, the
report that Trump disclosed classified information to Russian officials,
and Comey’s memo -- are testing the party’s patience.
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a Bloomberg Television interview
on Tuesday that Republicans desire “less drama” from the White House.
Several Republicans said Tuesday after the memo surfaced that Comey
should testify to Congress. AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for House
Speaker Paul Ryan, said the Wisconsin Republican backed Chaffetz’s
demand for documents.
Republicans React
“If true, these
memoranda raise questions as to whether the president attempted to
influence or impede the FBI’s investigation as it relates to Lt. Gen.
Flynn,” Chaffetz wrote.
Lawmakers need to hear Comey testify and
get documents or transcripts of any meetings he had with Trump, Senator
Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, told CNN on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately
the administration has given such conflicting information, the
president’s own tweets at times seem to contradict the statements made
by staff," she said.
Representative Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, went further.
"I
think we’re at the position now where it’s time for an independent
commission or a special prosecutor or whatever," Kinzinger told CNN
Wednesday, adding that it was the first time he had made such a call.
"If in fact what was said in the memo is true, it’s very concerning and
we need to get to the bottom of that."
Democrats Pounce
Democrats were far less sparing in their criticism.
Senator
Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a member of the Judiciary Committee,
called the memo as reported “powerful evidence of obstruction of
justice.”
“If there were ever a final nail on the case for an
independent prosecutor, this is it,” Blumenthal said at the Capitol.
“And there’s more behind it. There are other memos.”
He and other Democrats said Comey must testify before lawmakers about his conversations with the president.
“At
best, President Trump has committed a grave abuse of executive power,”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said in a statement.
"At worst, he has obstructed justice."
Second-ranking Senate
Democrat Dick Durbin told reporters, "Each day as this unfolds, this
pattern of obstruction of justice grows." The Illinois senator said he
wants to see Comey’s memos and hear his testimony in public.
Comey
had been invited to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on
Tuesday but never accepted and indicated he would appear at another
time.