Sen. Marco RubioMarco RubioRubio won't rule out idea that Trump obstructed justice Live coverage: Comey testifies on Trump The key players to watch at Comey’s hearing today MORE (R-Fla.) is not ruling out that President Trump may have attempted to obstruct justice in his interactions with former FBI Director James Comey.
“I’m not prepared to reach a conclusion on that, because we’re not done with all the other pieces that are missing,” Rubio said, according to The Washington Post.
Rubio's comments followed Comey's high-profile testimony on Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which Rubio is member of. In the session, Comey told lawmakers that, before he was fired, Trump had demanded his loyalty and pressed him to drop the FBI's probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
“I don’t think anybody would leave this hearing and say to you that what the president said in the Oval Office on the 14th of February was appropriate,” Rubio said, referring to the meeting in which Trump asked Comey to end the Flynn investigation.
That Trump appeared to sway Comey to shutdown the investigation has led to questions about whether the president could be charged with obstruction of justice. Asked about the potential for such charges on Thursday, Comey demurred, saying he could not make that determination.
Republican lawmakers, however, have largely defended Trump, arguing that he did not obstruct justice and that doing so was likely not his intention.
Rubio, however, said lawmakers would have to figure out whether Trump's requests to Comey were of nefarious intent and aimed specifically at obstructing justice, or if they were simply a result of the president's inexperience with government protocol.