We told you Donald Trump’s DOJ was singling out Richard Burr to get him out of the way
Back when several Republican Senators dumped their stock portfolios after a classified briefing about the coronavirus, Donald Trump’s allies began publicly singling out Richard Burr and demanding that he resign. It was fairly obvious that Trump was trying to use the scandal to force Burr out of his position as Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman, where he was still investigating the Trump-Russia scandal.
When the FBI subsequently seized Richard Burr’s cellphone earlier this month, it very much appeared that the probe was indeed singling him out, as no similar action was being taken against the other Republican Senators. Sure enough, Trump’s DOJ announced this afternoon that it’s dropped the probes into Republican Senators like Kelly Loeffler and James Inhofe, but it’s pushing forward with the probe into Burr.
Burr has already agreed to temporarily step down as Chairman until the probe concludes. This decision by Trump’s DOJ means that Burr will likely remain under investigation through election day, thus ensuring that he can’t use his position on the Senate Intel Committee to expose any more of Trump’s Russia-related secrets before the election.
The thing is, though, this won’t protect the other Republican Senators for long. After Donald Trump loses the election, they’ll be properly investigated, and they’ll be criminally charged if it’s warranted. But for now Trump and his DOJ are making clear that they have no interest in investigating any Republicans – except for the one specific Republican they needed out of the way.
