Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday brushed back President Donald Trump’s pleas for the Judiciary Committee chairman to haul in former President Barack Obama for testimony about the origins of the Russia investigation and the FBI’s handling of the investigation into Michael Flynn.
Lindsey Graham wearing a suit and tie: Sen. Lindsey Graham.© Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call/Pool via AP Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Just moments after Trump appealed directly to the South Carolina Republican on Twitter, Graham (R-S.C.) reiterated that he does not intend to call Obama before his committee — and he warned of the precedent such an action would set.
“I don’t think now’s the time for me to do that. I don’t know if that’s even possible. I have grave concerns about the role of executive privilege and all kinds of issues,” Graham said in a brief interview. “I understand President Trump’s frustration, but be careful what you wish for. Just be careful what you wish for.”
In recent days, Trump has mounted an aggressive campaign against his predecessor, accusing Obama of illegally targeting his associates during his final months in the White House. Trump has not cited evidence that Obama engaged in criminal wrongdoing, even as he continues to amplify the issue on his Twitter feed, dubbing it “Obamagate,” and accusing the former president of committing the “biggest political crime in American history.”
And on Thursday morning, Trump called out Graham, who said earlier this week that he does not “anticipate” calling in Obama for testimony.
“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,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “He knew EVERYTHING. Do it @LindseyGrahamSC , just do it. No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more talk!”
While Graham has thus far declined those calls, he said this week that he plans to summon several former senior Obama administration officials before his committee as part of its investigation into the origins of the Russia probe, including a focus on the FBI’s probe of Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. The Justice Department moved to drop the criminal case against Flynn last week, a decision that was celebrated by Trump and his allies.
Still, Graham said asking for testimony from a former president would set a dangerous president, and he tacitly warned that Trump himself could be subject to such scrutiny under that same standard after he leaves office.
“I’m very, very sensitive to the separation of powers, executive branch — we do have oversight of it as Congress, appropriate oversight,” Graham said. “But hauling a former president before an oversight committee, I don’t think that’s been done before. And presidentially, I’d be careful what I wish for.”
In a statement later Thursday, Graham said the Judiciary Committee will start holding hearings in early June related to the origins of the Russia investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane. The probe will cover the Flynn case in addition to the alleged abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that were documented by the Justice Department’s inspector general.
The investigation will also focus on “whether Robert Mueller should have ever been appointed as special counsel,” Graham said.
He added that both Trump and Obama are welcome to come before his committee. “If nothing else it would make for great television,” he said. “However, I have great doubts about whether it would be wise for the country.”
Graham’s fellow GOP senators have largely sidestepped questions of whether Congress or the Justice Department should pursue criminal investigations against Obama or his former top deputies, deferring instead to U.S. Attorney John Durham’s probe into the origins of the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia.
Trump’s position on seeking Obama’s testimony directly conflicts with arguments put forward by his own Justice Department in efforts to block Congress from interviewing his former White House counsel, Don McGahn. In a lengthy justification for the decision to block McGahn from testifying, the department argued that former presidents and their advisers are just as protected from compelled testimony to Congress as they were while in office.
“It is just as important to the independence of the Executive that the actions of the President should not be subjected to the questioning by the Congress after he has completed his term of office as that his actions should not be questioned while he is serving as President,” the department wrote, quoting former President Harry Truman's remarks when refusing to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee. “Because the immunity of senior presidential advisers derives from the immunity of the President, this same logic extends to them as well.”
- Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.