Russia-Trump Probe Now A Criminal Investigation: Sen. Graham

The probe into Russian involvement in the 2016 election is "now considered a criminal investigation," according to Sen. Lindsey Graham. He made the announcement after hearing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein brief the entire United States Senate Thursday.

The investigation had previously been considered a counter-intelligence investigation focused on Russian efforts to interfere with the election.

The meeting was originally called to update the senators on last week's firing of FBI Director James Comey. With Rosenstein's appointment of a special counsel on Wednesday, the meeting took on a slightly different tone.

Sen. Claire McCaskill said Rosenstein has given the special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, "wide latitude" and "complete discretion" in running his probe.

Graham said that based on the apparent shift to a criminal probe, Congress's investigations will have to take a back seat.

Members of Congress are aware that during the Iran-Contra investigations in the 1980s, the Congressional decision to give Oliver North immunity led to his criminal conviction being overturned.

Sen. Ron Wyden, a member of the Intelligence Committee, said that he does not see Mueller's appointment getting in the way of the committee's work.

"We are moving forward," he said. "I have said that we are going to follow the money, and that is what we are going to do."

In a bombshell, Rosenstein informed the senators that he knew Comey would be fired before he wrote a memo outlining his handling of the Clinton email probe.

Several administration officials had said that Trump based his decision on Rosenstein's memo — something that now appears to be untrue.

"He learned the president’s decision to fire him and then he wrote his memo with his rationale," Sen. Dick Durbin said after hearing from Rosenstein.

McCaskill said that Rosenstein did not want to go into details about Comey's firing because "he wants to give Robert Mueller the opportunity to make an independent decision" on how to move forward.

Meanwhile, after 24 hours of Twitter silence, Trump emerged Thursday morning, unleashing a series of tweets attacking the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russian influence in the 2016 election and "related matters."

The president said he is a victim of a "witch hunt" and wondered why there was no special counsel investigating the "illegal acts" committed by President Obama or Hillary Clinton.

"With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special councel appointed," Trump said.

He misspelled "counsel" as "councel" but later corrected his error.

The president offered no evidence of any illegal acts by Obama or Clinton.

Trump also said this is the "single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!"

On Wednesday, speaking at the commencement ceremony for the Coast Guard Academy, Trump said, "No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly."

As a candidate and private citizen, Trump repeatedly implied his predecessor had been born outside the United States.

Trump doubled down on his response to the probe at an afternoon press conference with the Colombian president.

"I respect the move, but the entire thing has been a witch hunt, and there is no collusion between, certainly myself and my campaign, but I can only speak for myself and the Russians. Zero," Trump said.

"Believe me, there’s no collusion. Russia is fine, but whether it's Russia or anybody else, my total priority, believe me, is the United States of America."

Photo: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein

Photo credit: Alex Wong/Staff/Getty Images News/Getty Images