Trump Is in Deep Trouble

I am closely following this investigation of possible collusion between the Donald Trump presidential campaign and Russian government operatives in influencing our election last year and the repercussions of it to the present, which will be ongoing. I did the same 44 years ago when Watergate happened. This is very important to our democracy. If it is discovered President Trump himself is guilty of collusion, Watergate will have been a Sunday school picnic compared to this.

The Senate Intelligence Committee held a public hearing today, which was televised. It consists of 15 senators headed by Chairman Richard Burr  (R-NC) and Vice-Chairman Mark Wagner (D-VA). I won’t go over the details here, since the media is covering this amply. Today, for the first time, former FBI Director James Comey, whom President Donald Trump fired on May 9, testified publicly to the committee by presenting his view of the facts concerning three meetings and six phone calls he had with President Trump starting on January 6 which were all initiated by Trump. Comey says he took copious notes of these conversations right after they occurred. Yesterday, he gave the committee a condensed version of them. The committee immediately made them available to the media. In Comey’s testimony today, he elaborated on these notes. But he didn’t provide much more information that was pertinent to the investigation.

Last January, while James Comey was still the FBI Director, he publicly revealed that the FBI had an ongoing investigation of possible collusion between members of Trump’s campaign and Russian government operatives. Soon after that, the U.S. public was told that both the House and Senate intelligence committees were investigating this matter, mainly for the purpose to prevent foreign meddling in our elections. But now we have a special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, investigating this from the criminal perspective.

The big question is whether or not President Trump himself was involved in collusion with Russians. In this country, you are innocent until proved guilty by a court of law. Here are some facts:

• During the election campaign and after it, Donald Trump often spoke glowingly of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Russia itself. That was most strange for an American to do, but especially one campaigning for the presidency.
• Michael Flynn, Trump’s National Security Advisor, had to resign because in his vetting process for the job, he lied about contacts he had with Russian officials.
• Apparently due to fear of possible criminal guilt, Flynn later said publicly he had a “story” to tell and then asked the intelligence committees to give him immunity if he would testify before them. They refused.
• According to Comey, Donald Trump became obsessed with trying to stop the FBI’s investigation of Flynn, whom he repeatedly called “a good guy” as if Flynn wouldn’t have done such a thing. According to Comey’s testimony today, Trump did this numerous times with Comey while he was the FBI Director.
• Trump reportedly did this also with other branches of intelligence. Yesterday, National Intelligence Director Dan Coats, in his public appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee, refused to answer the question as to whether or not Trump asked him to try to stop the FBI’s investigation of Flynn.
• Trump had his new Deputy Attorney General Rob Rodenstein write a letter stating how FBI Director James Comey had erred in his handling of the investigation into Hilary Clinton’s use of her email server. Trump then made it public and had his press secretary state that he fired Comey because Rodenstein recommended it.

Here is my take.

• Trump spoke so positively of Russia and Putin because they have something on him serving as blackmail that could be devastating to his reputation.
• Rodenstein reportedly objected to the White House characterizing him as recommending President Trump fire Comey and threatened to resign. Trump then corrected his press secretary by announcing publicly on television that he fired Comey because of how he was handling the Russian investigation. Trump therein implicated himself in possible obstruction of justice.
• Trump would not have tried to stop the FBI investigation of Flynn, to the point of risking obstructing justice, if Trump was innocent of collusion with the Russians.
• Trump supporters will claim he didn’t understand the separation of our three branches of government–executive, legislative, and judicial–making them independent of each other. This plea of ignorance will not stand. One reason is, according to Comey, one time Trump and Comey were together with others in a room, and Trump had them leave while he asked Comey privately to end the Flynn investigation.
• In conclusion, it appears Trump sent Flynn, and perhaps others, to get Russians to do cyber-activity in order to try to get himself elected.
• Trump’s efforts to stop the FBI’s investigation of Flynn is likely an obstruction of justice, which is a serious crime. But it is even more serious in this case because it involves a foreign nation that has been the main enemy of the U.S. in the world for the past 70 years, and it is an effort to thwart our democracy.
• If Michael Flynn gets sent from the White House to the Big House, it ain’t gonna happen without him squawkin’ his story, which probably involves Trump guilt.
• Another Trump obsession was that he asked Comey three different times about whether or not the FBI had him under investigation about him possibly colluding with Russians. Trump even tried to get Comey to publicly say Trump was not under investigation. Why would a guy do all of that if he knew he was innocent?

When the Republican candidate Donald Trump was campaigning for the presidency last year against the Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton, Clinton was under FBI investigation part of that time for her misuse of an email server. Some observers, including me, thought that was somewhat innocuous for such an investigation. Trump was constantly saying at his political rallies, “lock her up,” referring to Ms. Clinton. At least at one of those rallies, Michael Flynn was shown on television yelling the same. It was characteristic of Trump’s style of being so hyper-critical of others, so judgmental.

Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Mount, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get” (Matthew 7.1-2). I think Trump should have been heeding Jesus’ words, here, when Trump conducted his political campaign for the presidency. If these words of Jesus apply to this situation, it may come back to Bite Trump in the Rump.