Gillibrand on Trump: ‘We should look into obstruction of justice’

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) says in a new interview that Congress should look at whether President Trump obstructed justice with the “shocking” firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

“I believe we should look into obstruction of justice,” Gillibrand told David Axelrod in an episode of “The Axe Files” podcast from CNN. “I think this is a serious concern to be firing a FBI director in the middle of an investigation that relates to you and your administration.”

Gillibrand said the slew of recent reports regarding Trump’s attempts to convince Comey to drop the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, as well as Trump telling Russian officials that Comey was a “nut job” and firing him took “great pressure” off him, were deeply concerning.

{mosads}”It’s hugely problematic,” Gillibrand said. “These are horrible things and they all sound like obstruction of justice.”

Gillibrand joins other Democratic lawmakers who are accusing Trump of obstructing justice. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said on Saturday that “it is clear as day” that Trump attempted to impede the FBI’s investigation into alleged ties between his campaign and Russia.

“What we saw in the last two weeks is obstruction of justice, a federal crime, staring all of us in the face,” Lieu said.

Gillibrand says she supports the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to lead the investigation, but said an independent commission in the vein of the 9/11 Commission is needed.

“Did Russia hack our election, did they penetrate our electoral systems, did they undermine any of our voting systems and voter registration? What was lacking in our systems that couldn’t have prevented that, and what do we do to prevent it in the future?” she said. “Which is exactly what the 9/11 Commission did. They said what happened and then they said what did we not have that we needed to have and what do we need to build in the future to prevent a similar terrorist attack.”