Washington: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has rejected US President Donald Trump’s demand that his predecessor, Barack Obama, should be called to testify before Congress on the origins of the investigation into Russian election meddling.
“I think it’d be a bad precedent to compel a former president to come before the Congress,” Graham, a close ally of Trump, told reporters on Thursday in Capitol Hill.
“That would open up a can of worms and for a variety of reasons I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
But Graham, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced that the panel will start hearings in June on the FBI’s investigation into alleged Russian election interference and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, reports Xinhua news agency.
In a tweet on Thursday morning, Trump tagged Graham, urging him to ask Obama to provide testimony about what the incumbent said “the biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA, by far”.
Trump and his conservative allies have recently ramped up attacks against the Obama administration, after the Department of Justice’s controversial move to drop its case against Michael Flynn, a senior advisor to his 2016 campaign and his administration’s first National Security Adviser.
Flynn admitted in December 2017 that he lied to the FBI about his discussions, including of US sanctions against Russia, with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, but has since sought to withdraw that plea, claiming that he was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct.
Criminal charges against Flynn became part of the Russia investigation led by former special counsel Robert Mueller, which Trump has repeatedly called a witch hunt and hoax. (IANS)