Washington state attorney general joins call for Trump-Russia investigation

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson is one of 20 attorneys general calling for an independent investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election.

In a letter dated Thursday, the state and district attorneys general asked U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint “an independent special counsel” to investigate Russia’s interference in last year’s race.

“As the chief law enforcement officers of our respective states, we view the President’s firing of FBI Director James Comey in the middle of his investigation of Russian interference in the presidential election as a violation of the public trust,” the attorneys general wrote.

Ferguson has made a name for himself lately by fighting the policies of Republican President Donald Trump. In January, his office successfully sued to block enforcement of Trump’s executive order banning travelers from seven-majority Muslim countries. Ferguson later challenged a revised version of the ban.

The Democratic attorney general’s frustrations with Trump’s agenda continued Thursday as Ferguson sent a letter objecting to Trump’s recent order looking to review the status of several national monuments.

In the letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Ferguson wrote that the president and interior secretary “lack the legal authority to revoke or reduce a National Monument designation.”

This story was originally published May 11, 2017 at 3:21 PM with the headline "Washington state attorney general joins call for Trump-Russia investigation."