Senate chairman move ramps up Trump Russia probe

Bloomberg

Donald Trump may have annoyed the wrong man in Congress. Senator Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has been ramping up an investigation into possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign, in addition to the president’s dismissal of former FBI Director James Comey.
The plain-spoken Iowa Republican had sharply criticized the administration’s initial failure to respond to many lawmakers’ requests for information. He also hasn’t been shy about other topics, including the use of foul language by the recently dismissed White House communications chief, Anthony Scaramucci.
Grassley’s decision to move full speed ahead on Russia, including threatening Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and others with subpoenas, will likely force a more public — and unpredictable -— autopsy of topics the administration would rather fade away. Grassley, working with the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California, is pressing to uncover any attempts to obstruct justice or influence the presidential election.
The senator’s approach puzzles some of his Republican colleagues. GOP leaders have preferred to keep the Russia probe limited to the Intelligence Committee, a buttoned-down panel that usually conducts its business behind closed doors.

LOYAL REPUBLICAN
Colleagues say Grassley remains a loyal Republican who is merely doing what he’s done for decades. He has defended Trump on a range of issues, helped install Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, and has lambasted Democratic leaders. He even criticized the media for “hysteria” about the Russia investigations.
“He’s a good conservative, but he loves the institution, and he’s got that Iowa sense of fairness,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, who serves on the Judiciary Committee, in an interview. “He doesn’t go pick a fight, but if you get in a fight with him you’ve got a worthy opponent. I think the more you stonewall him, the worse it gets.”
Earlier this year, some Democrats complained Grassley wasn’t doing enough to pursue the Russia matter. Then in June, the committee started delving deeper and the Democrats’ complaints turned to praise. Grassley said he’s investigating for a simple reason: Congress has a responsibility to provide oversight. “This is what Chuck Grassley does,” Grassley said in an interview at the Capitol last week.
“They may be new to town, but they surely recognize what Chuck Grassley’s reputation is. And if they don’t know it, they’ve been told, I bet, a hundred times,” he said. “I think I’ve got a pretty good reputation for being what I call an equal-opportunity overseer.”
Grassley said nobody from the White House has asked him to stop or slow his efforts — though Trump has repeatedly tweeted about how the Russia probes are unfair and that Republican lawmakers should be standing by him.
Grassley’s advocacy has already notched a win, when the White House pledged last month to respond to oversight letters from rank-and-file members in both parties. An earlier legal memo argued that only chairmen were entitled to oversight responses from the administration, prompting a six-page letter of condemnation from Grassley.
“I’d be doing it if Obama was president, and like I told you, back in the Reagan years, I subpoenaed William French Smith,” who was then the attorney general, Grassley said. Grassley, 83, has served in the Senate since 1981 after serving six years in the US House. He was elected to the Iowa state legislature in 1958. The Senate Intelligence Committee staff already has interviewed Manafort, and the panel also wants to hear from Trump Jr. and others. Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina said Grassley’s investigation isn’t interfering with his probe, which he said has included interviews with more than 70 people.