Did President Trump Commit Bribery?

NBC News broadcaster Lester Holt interviewed President Trump Wednesday, and it was televised. Trump said of his firing of FBI Director James Comey, “And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.’ It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.” Sounds like a line out of a Mafia mobster flick.

Trump has been calling that investigation a “witchhunt” and a “hoax.” Such behavior is unbecoming of the U.S. President, especially since all U.S. intelligence agencies have agreed that the Russians tried electronically to get Donald Trump elected president. And Comey reportedly had asked the Justice Department for more funds with which to continue the Trump-Russia probe. A foreign nation, especially one that has been a long-time enemy of the U.S., trying to influence our electoral process is very serious business because it impinges on the core of our democracy–free elections. But what if Trump’s campaign operatives were involved with Russians in doing that. If that was the case, I doubt it happened without Trump’s knowledge and perhaps even direction. If so, Katy-bar-the-door. This will be 100 times more important than Watergate, with which it already is being compared.

Monday, Trump had called this Trump-Russia investigation “a taxpayer funded charade.” He could put a lot of this probe to rest by coming clean, offering whatever information the FBI and congressional intelligence committees want from him and his campaign associates plus his tax returns. Ain’t gonna happen. I think President Trump is into a big time cover-up mode that looks very suspicious.

What about Michael Flynn and Trump? Flynn worked in Trump’s campaign. The president then hired him as his National Security Advisor. It soon became known that Flynn had lied about his previous involvement with Russians? Yet it took some 17 days for President Trump to fire him. Then Flynn becomes a person of interest for the two congressional intelligence investigations. Flynn reportedly puts out feelers asking the intelligence investigations committees for immunity to testify before Congress, but so far has been rejected. Constitutional lawyers are saying Flynn could go be guilty of breaking some laws and go to prison for years. Yet Trump continues even now to speak positively about Flynn, even meeting with  him. Why is Trump cozying up to Flynn after firing him for lying? It looks as though Flynn could bring down the president. But there may be others like this, for instance, Paul Manafort. Trump’s lawyers reportedly are advising him to “stay away from Flynn.”

President Trump’s deputy press secretary, Sarah Sanders, had said he fired Comey on recommendation by deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. But in the Holt interview, Trump corrected that story by saying he had already decided before that to fire Comey. Trump then said Comey mishandled the FBI’s Hilary Clinton email investigation. He also accused Comey of being “a showboat” and “grandstander” who threw the FBI into “turmoil.”

Last night, Professor Laurence Tribe of Harvard Law School appeared on Lawrence O’Donnell’s “The Last Word” television news broadcast. Mr. Tribe is a constitutional law scholar of high stature, having argued before the Supreme Court 36 times. He was born in China, is of Jewish descent, and his parents emigrated from Eastern Europe to the U.S. Tribe says if President Trump did ask Comey for his loyalty at that dinner in exchange for keeping him as FBI Director, that constitutes “bribery” and is an “obstruction of justice.”

Sparks are flying. I think this fiasco is going to get a lot worse.