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Donald Trump Impeachment: W.H. Reportedly Trying To Sink Russia Investigation

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 10:57 PST, Mar 28, 2017

Donald Trump’s odds of impeachment could be rising significantly amid reports that the White House may have tried to squash the Russia investigation by demanding that a key insider not testify against Trump.

The Trump administration was rocked last week by the revelation that the FBI is investigating possible collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential election to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances of victory. American intelligence agencies have accused Russia of hacking into the emails of the Democratic National Committee and of Clinton’s campaign chief, John Podesta, which were then leaked to the organization WikiLeaks and released over the course of the campaign.

There had been allegations that Trump’s campaign team worked closely with Russian officials on the release of the materials, and claims that Russia had been working for years to cultivate Trump as a candidate, collecting embarrassing information to use as blackmail and dangling lucrative financial deals before Trump.

Now there is evidence that Donald Trump may be trying to grind the Russia investigation to a halt. A report from the Washington Post on Tuesday found that the White House tried to forbid former acting attorney general Sally Yates from testifying before the House Intelligence Committee.

Sources told the Washington Post that Yates would have likely uncovered some of the lies the White House has told about links with Russia.

“As acting attorney general, Yates played a key part in the investigation surrounding Michael T. Flynn, a Trump campaign aide who became national security adviser before revelations that he had discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador to the United States in late December led to his ouster.

“Yates and another witness at the planned hearing, former CIA director John Brennan, had made clear to government officials by Thursday that their testimony to the committee probably would contradict some statements that White House officials had made, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Ken Wainstein, a lawyer for Brennan, declined to comment.”

That has led to an angry backlash among Democrats and hints that the Russia investigation is growing more likely to lead to Donald Trump’s impeachment. Just hours after the report was published, commentator Keith Olbermann predicted that Republicans would no longer feel motivated to protect Trump against impeachment.

Because Republicans hold a majority in both the House and Senate, it would take many GOP members voting for Trump’s impeachment to actually make it happen, but the abrupt failure of the GOP health care reform plan showed that they are not afraid to buck the party and go against Trump.

As Olbermann predicted, Republicans skittish about 2018 re-election chances would be more likely to vote to impeach Donald Trump, Raw Story noted.

“You think these Republicans are going to defend Donald Trump?” Olbermann said (via Raw Story), adding “there is no Republicans loyalty Trump now.

“It will be the Republicans who impeach him,” he added.

Some calls for impeachment are now coming from the right as well, the Washington Times noted. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who has not been afraid to criticize Donald Trump, dropped a hint about impeachment during confirmation hearings for Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch.

Despite the increasing calls and predictions that Donald Trump could be impeached, the White House maintains that there were no improper communications or collusion with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.

[Featured Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]

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