Former Reagan adviser warns President Trump is 'in impeachment territory'

After a New York Times report revealed that former FBI Director James Comey kept memos detailing the president's attempt to derail the FBI's Russia investigation, a former White House adviser for multiple presidents says Trump is "in impeachment territory."

The Times report highlighted one particular note from a February meeting between Comey and Trump claiming the president asked the former FBI director to "let this go," in regard to the Russia investigation.

"I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. "He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."

David Gergen served as a top adviser under Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, and said on CNN that, if true, this note evidences that the president tried to "impede the investigation."

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"I think that the obstruction of justice was the number one charge against Nixon that brought him down," Gergen told CNN. "After watching the Clinton impeachment, I thought I would never see another one. But I think we're in impeachment territory for the first time."

Gergen went on, saying this revelation on Comey's detailing damning elements of conversations between himself and Trump is "of enormous consequence for [Trump's] presidency."

"I'm a lapsed lawyer, I can not tell you if it meets all of the legal definitions, but I can tell you from a lay point of view, it looks like [Trump] was trying to impede the investigation," Gergen said. "He was using his power to do that, and when James Comey didn't go along with him, he wasn't his boy, he fired him, which I think is also relevant to the question of what he was trying to do."

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Gergen's prediction comes as Rep. Justin Amash became the first Republican lawmaker in the House to suggest that Trump may have committed impeachable offenses, if the memo claims turned out to be true.

"But everybody gets a fair trial in this country," Amash added.

Both Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and have Rep. Al Green (D-TX) called for President Trump's impeachment.

New York Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt broke the story on Comey's secret memos, commented on the ongoing Trump-Russia saga on Wednesday morning.

"This is the most significant evidence to date of the president's efforts to try and influence this incredibly politically sensitive investigation into ties between his associates and Russia," said Schmidt on NYT's Wednesday episode of The Daily podcast. "I think that if there's nothing to the Russia stuff and to the accusations about ties between his associates and Russia and any meddling in the election, the president has done a very good at creating the appearance that there is something there."

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