Coming on top of credible information from America’s intelligence agencies
that Russia tried to destabilize and influence the 2016 presidential campaign, these latest revelations are more than sufficient reason for Congress to investigate what Moscow has been up to and whether people at the highest levels of the United States government have aided and abetted the interests of a nation that has tried to thwart American foreign policy since the Cold War.
In the last week alone, Americans have witnessed the firing of President Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and learned with shock and incredulity
that members of Mr. Trump’s campaign and inner circle were in repeated contact with Russian intelligence officials.
Instead he has waged an unhinged attack on the intelligence agencies themselves, praising President Vladimir Putin of Russia at every turn and pointing fingers everywhere
but at himself, while refusing to take a single step to resolve questions about his administration’s ties to Russia.
Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
and Dianne Feinstein, the panel’s top-ranking Democrat, are asking for a briefing and transcripts of Mr. Flynn’s calls to the Russian ambassador
During the Vietnam War, Watergate and the Iran-contra scandal, when a president’s actions
or policies crossed the line, Congress investigated and held the White House to account.
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Given that context, one might expect Mr. Trump to be clamoring for details
that would eliminate any suspicion that his administration is in league with an enemy.