June 16, 2017

Trump Appears to Confirm He Is Under Federal Investigation

In a series of breathless tweets, he also seemed to attack his deputy attorney general.

Susan Walsh/AP

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In a series of angry tweets Friday morning, President Donald Trump appeared to confirm reports that he is under federal investigation for obstruction of justice following the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.

While it was unclear to whom Trump was referring in his tweets, the outburst arrived just hours after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein released a cryptic statement Thursday evening urging Americans not to trust “anonymous allegations.” 

“Americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous ‘officials,’ particularly when they do not identify the country—let alone the branch or agency of government—with which the alleged sources supposedly are affiliated,” the statement said.

On Friday, the president continued to mock the multiple investigations into Russian interference in the presidential election and possible ties between the Kremlin and Trump associates. Earlier this week, the Washington Post broke news that special counsel Robert Mueller had recently expanded the independent investigation to personally examine whether Trump had attempted to obstruct justice by dismissing Comey last month. 

The White House initially claimed it was Rosenstein who had recommended Comey’s firing. Trump quickly contradicted that narrative, telling NBC’s Lester Holt that he intended to get rid of the former FBI director “regardless of recommendation.” Amid the uproar over Comey’s abrupt firing, Rosenstein appointed Mueller to lead the independent probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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