There have been too many Trump scandals to keep track of recently.
It's confusing and overwhelming.
So let's look at one in particular: Trump's firing of the FBI Director who was investigating
him for a possible connection to the Russian government.
For simplicity, we'll start on December 29th.
That's when the Obama administration announced that it was placing sanctions on Russia.
That same day, Michael Flynn spoke on the phone with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
On January 21st, Flynn and Kislyak spoke on the phone again.
Initially, Flynn said these conversations had nothing to do with the sanctions, but
he later admitted they may have spoken about the sanctions.
There was suspicion among many that he was being blackmailed into promising to lift the sanctions.
On January 22nd, Flynn was confirmed as Trump's National Security Advisor.
That same day, it was reported that the FBI and other US counterintelligence agencies
were investigating Flynn's ties to Russia.
On January 26th, the Attorney General at the time, Sally Yates, warned the White House
that Flynn could susceptible to blackmail by the Russian government.
On January 27th, Trump had dinner with FBI Director James Comey and asked him to pledge
his loyalty to him.
Comey said that his position as FBI Director was non-partisan, so he couldn't do that,
but he would be honest with Trump.
On February 13th, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway said that the President had
full confidence in Flynn.
That same day, Trump asked Flynn to resign because he couldn't trust him anymore.
On February 14th, according to memos that Comey recorded back then, Trump asked Comey
to drop his investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn's ties to Russia.
Comey said no.
On March 2nd, Jeff Sessions recused himself from any Russia investigations because of
his involvement with the Trump campaign and the fact that he had met multiple times with
Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
On March 20th, Comey told Congress that the FBI had been investigating Trump's ties
to Russia since last July.
On March 30th, Flynn said he would testify in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee
if he was given immunity, even though back in September, he said, "When you are given
immunity, that means you probably committed a crime."
His request for immunity was quickly rejected by the Committee.
On May 9th, Trump fired Comey, saying that he was doing so on the recommendation of the
Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General.
Trump had received a letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions saying that Comey should
be fired for his mishandling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.
Sessions said he made this recommendation after receiving a letter from Deputy Attorney
General Rod J. Rosenstein that criticized Comey's investigation of Hillary Clinton.
Also, it should be noted that during the campaign, both Trump and Sessions praised Comey's
handling of the Clinton investigation.
And because Comey was investigating Trump's ties to Russia, it's possible Jeff Sessions
interfered with the Russia investigation by recommending Comey be fired, because, by recusing
himself, Sessions had said he would have nothing to do with the Russia investigation.
On May 10th, the White House attempted to pin all the blame on the Department of Justice,
saying that Trump was only acting on their recommendation.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump had been thinking about firing
Comey but had not yet decided to until the recommendation came in.
She also said that the FBI had lost confidence in Comey.
Rosenstein then threatened to quit because of the blame being placed on him.
At the same time, Trump met with Russian officials in the White House.
He told them that he had fired Comey and taken the pressure off of the Russia investigation.
On May 11th, Trump directly contradicted that narrative, saying that he had already decided
to fire Comey before the recommendation came in,
and he would've fired Comey regardless of the recommendation.
Trump also admitted that the Clinton investigation wasn't the only reason for firing Comey.
The FBI Director had been conducting an investigation into Trump's ties to Russia, and Trump said
that his decision had to do with the "Russia thing".
And contradicting Huckabee Sanders, Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe told the Senate
Intelligence Committee that the vast majority of FBI employees supported Comey.
On May 17th, Rosenstein appointed a Special Counsel to investigate Trump's ties to Russia,
and he appointed Former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller to lead the investigation.
On May 18th, Trump said that he did not ask Comey to drop the investigation of Michael Flynn back in February
Now, Comey is set to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee sometime after May
29th, although an exact date hasn't been set yet.
Right now, Trump is under investigation by the Department of Justice, the House Intelligence
Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Because Trump will appoint the next FBI Director, it's unlikely that the FBI investigation
will last much longer.
So for now, we just have to wait and see what evidence those investigations turn up.
Thanks for watching this episode of Politics with Riley.
I'll see you next time.
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