President Donald Trump took to Twitter Thursday morning, urging Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to call former President Barack Obama to testify in the wake of developments surrounding the origins of the Russian investigation and efforts made by the previous administration to unmask Lt. General Michael Flynn.
The president’s tweet comes after Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Ron Johnson (R-WI) released documents Wednesday, listing the declassified names of Obama-era officials who purportedly sought to “unmask” the identity of Flynn.
The list features officials including then-Vice President Joe Biden, then-FBI Director James Comey, and intelligence chiefs John Brennan and James Clapper. It also included Obama’s then-chief of staff, Denis McDonough.
The document reveals that Biden had received information at least once in response to such an unmasking request on Jan. 12, 2017.
The Commander in Chief tweeted Thursday: “If I were a Senator or Congressman, the first person I would call to testify about the biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA, by FAR, is former President Obama. He knew EVERYTHING.”
“Do it @LindseyGrahamSC, just do it. No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more talk!” President Trump expressed. Continued Below
The president also on Thursday, in an interview with Fox Businesses Maria Bartiromo, slammed the Obama administration over the new documents and said that “it was the greatest political crime in the history of our country.”
“If I were a Democrat instead of a Republican, I think everybody would have been in jail a long time ago, and I’m talking with 50-year sentences. It is a disgrace what’s happened. This is the greatest political scam, hoax in the history of our country,” President Trump told Bartiromo.
“People should be going to jail for this stuff and hopefully, a lot of people are going to have to pay,” he added. Video Below
In a statement on Twitter Wednesday, Senator Graham wrote: “I very much appreciate DNI Grenell releasing names of the Obama Administration officials who made the unmasking requests of American citizen conversations with foreign entities. The unmasking of General Flynn by the Obama Administration regarding conversations during the presidential transition are deeply troubling and smell of politics, not national security.”
Graham added: “In light of General Flynn’s unmasking by the Obama Administration, the job of Congress will be to perform oversight of these unmasking requests to ensure the process was used for legitimate national security concerns, not reprisals or political curiosity. I specifically want to know how many unmasking requests were made, if any, beyond General Flynn regarding members of the Trump campaign team, family, or associates.”
President Trump’s remarks on Fox Business:
President Trump’s official tweet:
If I were a Senator or Congressman, the first person I would call to testify about the biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA, by FAR, is former President Obama. He knew EVERYTHING. Do it @LindseyGrahamSC, just do it. No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more talk!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 14, 2020
