WA congressman Denny Heck determined to investigate Trump after Comey firing

“There’s a pattern here,” Congressman Denny Heck told KIRO Radio’s Jason and Burns Show. And that pattern is stemming from President Donald Trump.

Heck sees the sudden firing of FBI Director James Comey as a troubling extension of this pattern.

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“I think it’s a statement of the obvious that it was an egregious abuse of power, especially when you consider that the inspector general was still involved in their review of Director Comey’s actions and behavior as it related to the Clinton investigation,” Heck said. “That had not been concluded. It was preemptive to say the least.”

Comey’s handling of the Clinton email issue was one reason Trump cited for firing the FBI Director.

“I don’t think it passes the straight-face test for one second,” Heck said.

Rather, Heck points to Trump’s habit of firing people. He fired 47 U.S. attorneys, including one from New York who was investigating matters around Trump. He also fired Sally Yates, director of the Department of Justice. It’s within the president’s power to do all this, but the pattern is clear and the Comey’s firing seems to have brought Republicans and Democrats together to investigate Trump further, Heck said.

Comey and the FBI led one of the investigations into relationships between Russian agents and the Trump campaign during the election. Heck said it is unknown if the next FBI director will continue that case. There’s also a Senate committee investigation into Trump, headed by a Republican. And there is a House committee investigation ongoing as well.

“I suspect this is an effort at distraction,” Heck said about Comey’s firing. “It just makes me more determined. It’s an effort at discouragement. And I become even more determined. We are going to follow the facts wherever they lead, we are going to hold people accountable if that’s appropriate and take this to its conclusion.”

“I think it was everybody’s favorite philosopher Elvis Presley who once said, ‘Truth is like the sun, you can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t going away,'” he said. “That’s the case here.”