Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Thursday it’s not clear whether President Trump obstructed justice, after more than two hours of testimony from Former FBI Director James Comey.
When asked by the Washington Examiner if there was obstruction of justice, Wyden said, “That’s a technical kind of question.”
“What I can tell you is that, when Mr. Comey says that at one dinner the president asked for a loyalty pledge, denied the allegations against him, asked that the matter be dismissed, I think that means the evidence is piling up that there’s been a significant abuse of presidential power,” Wyden added.
Wyden made those statements on his way to the closed-door portion of the hearing with Comey, after listening to two hours of open testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Many of the senators on the panel, and Comey himself, expressed the hope that the recent appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel to complete the Russia investigation outside of the president’s political chain of command would result in a conclusive fact-finding.
If Wyden is right about of abuses of power, he may have to wait a while for a result, as the work of special counsels can go on for years. But Wyden sees other angles that have yet to be pressed.
“Today, for example, didn’t even get into the area I have focused on, the ‘follow the money’ issues,” Wyden said. “Money laundering, property transfers, shell corporations, that sort of thing.”
Wyden has tried to use his position as ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee to get copies of Trump’s tax returns.
“I and other members of the finance committee have already urged that the committee exercise its authority to obtain and review Donald Trump’s tax returns,” the senator said in late March, adding he wanted investigations to look into Trump businesses for any violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Despite all the new information from Comey testimony, many Democrats are still not making outright accusations that the president directly colluded with the Kremlin last year or that he obstructed justice with his conversations with Comey this year.
Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., is representative of the tip-toeing up to the allegations when he said in a statement, “Donald Trump appears to have obstructed justice.” Markey made those remarks after the release of Comey’s prepared statements, but before his oral testimony.
