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Continue Russia probe, say both S. AZ Members of Congress

Posted at 8:14 PM, May 10, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-10 23:15:22-04

TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Both members of Congress for Southern Arizona, Republican and Democrat say the U-S must keep investigating possible Russian interference into our Presidential election.

Congressman Raul Grijalva wants to know why President Trump said FBI Director James Comey was doing a good job, then fired him.

He wants an independent prosecutor to continue the probe into Russian actions and whether they were meant to help the Trump campaign.

Republican Congresswoman Martha McSally is not calling for a special prosecutor--  but says the probes must continue.

To Congressman Grijalva it's mighty suspicious to fire FBI director James Comey the same day subpoenas went out to associates of retired General Mike Flynn.  President Trump fired Flynn as National Security Advisor for failing to disclose ties to Russia.

The number two man in the Justice Department recommended firing Comey for botching the investigation into Hillary Clinton's e-mails.

Grijalva says if that was the reason, President Trump could have fired Comey as soon as he took office. Instead he waited five months.

"I felt it was part of a pattern of obstruction of the investigation and the beginnings of a cover up and the exposure of the Trump Administration."

Grijalva says the Justice Department or Congress should appoint an independent prosecutor to lead the probe.

Republican Congresswoman Martha McSally is seeing concerns about Russian interference up close.  She and other members of Congress are in Ukraine, where Russian troops hold part of that country's territory.  She also visited other formerly Communist countries like Estonia and Poland where the Russian government tries to destabilize with cyber hacks and misinformation so routinely people recognize and ignore it.

By phone McSally said, “They see and they smell it and they don't believe it. They don't take the bait.  They identify it quickly.  They rout it out and in many cases on the internet a bunch of people in their society will jump on and say this isn't true, this is a bunch of nonsense.  This is a classic propaganda operation."

On the US-Russia investigation she is concerned about the timing when the President fired the FBI director and says the investigation must continue without even a hint of political interference.