Trump is Guilty. Now What?
Donald Trump’s recent decision to end the government shutdown was conveniently made hours after his longtime advisor, Roger Stone was arrested.
Stone is a Republican operative who idolized Richard Nixon so much he got a tattoo of Nixon’s face on his back (after Watergate). The dramatic rise of negative political advertising, lobbying, and outside spending can be traced back to Stone with disturbing accuracy. He has been encouraging Donald Trump to run for President as far back as 1987 and has remained one of Trump’s closest political advisors for years. He is notorious for his unabashedly dirty tricks and embraces his anti-hero persona.
And while all this would make for a noteworthy first paragraph in Stone’s obituary, last week’s indictment from Special Counsel Robert Mueller will likely take its place.
Mueller’s indictment shows that Roger Stone sought to gather information about hacked Democratic Party emails at the direction of unidentified “Senior Trump Campaign Officials.” He then lied repeatedly and tampered with witnesses to keep his efforts secret.
Robert Mueller’s report has shown that Russian officials began to target email accounts from Hillary Clinton’s personal and campaign offices “on or around” the same day Donald Trump called on Russia to find emails that were missing from her personal server.
Those Russian-hacked emails were released via Wiki Leaks.
Roger Stone was instructed to gather information about the hacked emails from “Senior Campaign Officials.” He then told a witness to imitate the character from The Godfather II, who testifies before a congressional committee and falsely claims not to have critical information. Stone also threatened to take a witness’s therapy dog if he told the truth.
“I am so ready. Let’s get it on. Prepare to die [expletive],” Stone emailed the same witness.
So the question becomes, who are the “Senior Campaign Officials?” Trump’s Campaign Manager, National Security Advisor, and top Campaign Advisor have already been named and indicted.
Here is where I will go out on a limb and say that one of the Senior Campaign Officials mentioned in Robert Mueller’s indictment is named Donald Trump.
I have to stop and appreciate the professionalism, the tact, the discipline and the sparkling reputation of Robert Mueller. He has been appointed and reappointed to Senate-confirmed positions by Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. He served as Director of the FBI from 2001 to 2013 through both Democratic and Republican administrations.
He has managed to conduct his investigation without a single leak.
The special investigation into Watergate took 4 years. The investigation into White Water lasted 7 years. In just over two years, Robert Mueller has managed to produce indictments for 34 people and three companies.
For all the GOP pundits insisting the investigation has dragged on too long, or who claim he is carrying out a Witch Hunt orchestrated by Democrats, Robert Mueller hasn’t wavered once in his professionalism. It’s hard to imagine someone more competent at the helm of this investigation than Robert Mueller.
With his first indictment, Mueller presents how this all started — George Papadopoulos a low-profile foreign policy campaign adviser got drunk and made an offhand remark in a London bar that triggered an FBI counterintelligence investigation into President Trump’s campaign.
This footnote in history, that the country’s biggest political scandal might never have seen the light of day had a campaign advisor been able to hold his booze elicits the question: how many more political scandals have we just never heard about?
Next, Mueller presents Paul Manafort, Trump’s former Campaign Chair, who was indicted on 25 counts. Paul Manafort’s financial records show that he had been in debt to pro-Russia interests by as much as $17 million before he began working for free as Donald J. Trump’s Presidential Campaign Manager in March 2016.
Michael Cohen initially testified to Congress that plans to build Trump Tower Moscow, a longtime goal of Donald Trump’s, quickly fizzled out. However, Cohen has since pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, stating in court that the licensing deal for Trump Tower Moscow continued into June after Trump secured the Republican nomination.
It is not a coincidence that, according to court documents, Michael Cohen canceled a planned trip to Moscow on June 14, 2016 — the same day the Post broke the story that Russians had hacked the Democratic National Committee.
In his guilty plea, Cohen says that he had briefed the Trump family with Moscow developments, discussed its status with Trump, and traveled to Russia to pursue the deal. All this despite Trump insisting multiple times during the campaign that he had no business dealings with Russia.
The rest of the indictments, associates and past clients of Paul Manafort, Russian nationals, 12 individual Russian intelligence officers, and three Russian companies, all point our attention towards the most important elements of the case thus far:
Paul Manafort, Trump’s former Campaign Chairman.
Michael Flynn, Trump’s former National Security Advisor.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former ‘fixer’ and lawyer.
And Roger Stone.
All these men have been indicted for one central crime “lying.” They have lied repeatedly to the FBI, to Congress, and to the American people.
So what were they all lying about?
They were lying to cover up something we already know. Donald Trump is a criminal. The ongoing investigations into his administration, his campaign, his company, and his foundation will all turn up evidence of unethical and likely criminal behavior (maybe I’ll spend tomorrow writing about those).
Since Robert Mueller’s investigation began, Trump has obstructed justice and tampered with witnesses on live television. He has lied thousands of times about the Russia investigation on Twitter, television and to reporters. And while the extent of his criminality is still unknown, we know that Trump’s top campaign officials participated in the largest criminal political conspiracy in our country’s history and that Donald Trump, who has shown a penchant for control and power throughout his personal and professional life, is almost certainly involved.
This investigation and its findings present an opportunity for a hyper-partisan country to come together — a seemingly clear-cut presentation of facts showing, at the very least, an unprecedented criminal cover-up by the President’s closest aides.
Yet there have been no indications this will be the case. Trump and conservative publications have shown no signs they will retreat from their position: the Special Counsel’s investigation is a partisan witch-hunt.
Meanwhile, the President, his party, and his allies in the media continue to sew distrust in our federal law enforcement institutions and our system of justice, causing immeasurable damage to some of the most crucial pillars of our Democracy.
While our country has become more divided, conspiratorial, and skeptical of institutions, the biggest winner in Trump’s presidency is clear. Vladimir Putin has gotten everything he could have ever wished for.
Putin came to power after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1999 determined to reclaim Russia’s standing as a top world power. With a chance to weaken the United States, Vladimir Putin took his shot in 2016 and it has paid dividends.
Vladimir Putin has since been the beneficiary of Trump’s incomprehensible break with traditional Republican positions on Russia. In the lead-up to and throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has:
Changed the official GOP party platform to be more beneficial to Russia.
Told Putin he would lift the sanctions leveled by Obama in response to their election interference, then refused to enforce sanctions passed later by a bi-partisan Congress.
Repeatedly disregarded the advice of his military and foreign policy advisors on matters regarding Russia, even when spelled out in all-caps, bold letters (DO NOT CONGRATULATE).
Repeatedly refused to acknowledge the unanimous consensus of American intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in our elections.
Openly attacked his national intelligence advisors, suggesting that they should “go back to school” after they unanimously rebuked his talking points on Russia, ISIS, North Korea, and Iran.
Stood next to Putin in front of a global audience in Helsinki and said he believed Putin over American intelligence agencies.
Concealed details of his face-to-face meetings with Putin from his advisors.
Took away the notes from the interpreter who sat in on his meeting with Putin and told him not to share details.
Had an undisclosed private meeting with Putin without any US note taker present.
Lifted sanctions on the business empire of Oleg Deripaska, the same Russian oligarch his former Campaign Chairman, Paul Manafort, was in debt $17 million dollars to.
Abruptly pulled troops from Syria and Afghanistan, a decision so brazen, it led his Secretary of Defense to resign.
And while he doesn’t show much interest in foreign or domestic policy, he is curiously well-versed in Russian talking points and propaganda and repeats them publically.
Sometimes the simplest explanation is the obvious one.
I have no idea where the country goes from here, but I hope we come out the other side ready to begin conversations about real and urgent issues like climate change, record wealth inequality, and a broken healthcare system.
For now, sadly, we will continue to debate a medieval wall along our southern border and wait for Robert Mueller to release his final report.
