TRUMP: NIXON ON STEROIDS - RUSSIAGATE?

It is not an exaggeration to label the current crisis caused by Russian intervention in the 2016 Presidential election and the relationship of the Trump team to them as the greatest threat to American Democracy since Watergate. This circumstance has been accompanied by Trump’s attack on the independent Judiciary, bias against peoples of color and certain religions  and threats to the media adding to the belief that America’s traditional form of constitutional government is under siege.

The reported contacts during the election between Trump surrogates and Russian intelligence as well as the disgraced National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s discussions with the Russian Ambassador on sanctions have been highlighted by reported leaks by the Washington Post and New York Times. In addition Trump has been outspoken supporter and admirer of Vladimir Putin and at least four of his campaign team had extensive connections with Russia. All this was accompanied by Russia’s ongoing attempts to back Trump’s candidature via hacking, leaking e mails to Wikileaks and fake news. 

The irresistible inference is that there may well have been collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. There are repeated allusions to the 1970’s Watergate scandal which historians and commentators believe was a similar attack on the America value system. (Crisply, Watergate was an illegal attempt to support Nixon’s reelection by breaking into Democratic National Committee Headquarters with a subsequent cover up that further involved lies, deceptions and law breaking - sound familiar!).

THE ALLEGATIONS IN RUSSIAGATE

It is common knowledge that the Russians hacked the DNC and provided Wikileaks with material to discredit Hillary Clinton in an attempt to assist Donald Trump’s Presidential bid. That adds up to an illegal attempt to interfere with the American democratic electoral presidential process. They also provided fake news and other misinformation. All this by a foreign rogue power that is currently a strategic enemy magnifies the threat to the very basis of the Republic. 

The question is “What did Trump know about it and when did he know it?” Another more testy allegation is knocking around, “Was there any quid pro quo offered in return for this ‘help’?”

Russiagate has proceeded at a far greater pace than the Watergate scandal. There it took a long while to definitively state that the burglary and bugging of the Democratic Party Headquarters at the Watergate office complex was even connected to Nixon’s reelection. It took over a year before the first Nixon administrative officials were fired and to initiate a Senate Committee investigation. It was over three years after the bungled burglary that Nixon was forced to resign. Within one month of Trump’s Presidency Trump has already fired his Chief Security Advisor Michael Flynn and the Senate has already ordered an investigation into the Russian interference in the Presidential election. In Watergate there was an open inquiry that had total bipartisan support and wall to wall television coverage. Thus far the Republicans will only back Intelligence Committee enquiries that are held in private with the Republicans controlling what will be released.

CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE: TRUMP AND HIS TEAM’S RUSSIAN CONNECTION

Trump:

From the word go Trump has evidenced an inexplicable admiration for  the Russian Premier Vladimir Putin. This almost worship has continued to this day. In a February interview with Fox’s Bill O’ Reilly, who was cuing him to lay off this indefensible position, he affirmed his esteem of the former KGB Officer. The Donald went as far as to say the Americans were no better than the Putin Russians who killed people. While Trump changed positions on most topics throughout the campaign he stuck to his guns on Putin. What has angered politicians, the intelligence and the military is that this support for this totalitarian warmonger is apparently at the expense of America’s traditional allies such as the NATO  Alliance.

According to a Forbes’s report in October 2016 Donald Trump had extensive business involvement with a Russian, Felix Sater. Trump subsequently lied that he was not familiar with him. The Forbes’s piece highlighted too a trio of Kazakh oligarchs who drove Trump deals. Now it has long been argued that Trump has extensive business interests in Russia and the belief is that only his tax returns would confirm or deny this allegation. Trump has flat out refused to release these after promising in the campaign that he eventually would. Trump has made numerous trips to Moscow, took his International Pageant show to that city and according to the Daily Kos has made numerous appearances on Russian media.

At kindest there is a big question mark as to Trump’s behavior in relation to a country that has demonstrated scant regard for international norms. He even denied, till the bitter end, repeated intelligence reports that Russia was responsible for interfering in the 2018 election.

Trump’s Russian Team

There is no question as to the close relationship four key members of the Trump campaign team and Russia and Jay H. Ell has a question about a fifth. Paul Manafort was brought in as Trump’s campaign manager in March 2016. He was reported to be advising and assisting the Russian land grab of Crimea being a paid operative in this regard. As all this became public knowledge and Manafort, who in addition, was said to be a lobbyist for foreign interests, finally resigned in August 2016. Carter Page was a foreign advisor to campaign Trump. He was a regular on Russian media and an advocate of dropping the sanctions on Russia. He stood to make a fortune in the event that the sanctions were eliminated. As his involvement became obvious he too disappeared of the scene about the same time as did Manafort. Michael Flynn who occupied the key position in the Administration as National Security Advisor worked on Russian TV and was seated next to Putin at a function. He gave paid talks criticizing US policy. On January 15, 2017 the Acting Attorney General Sally Yates informed the WhiteHouse that he had discussed the Russian sanctions, that Obama had just enforced, with the Russian Ambassador. She gave the POTUS an out distancing him from the crime scene, merely pointing out that because of Flynn’s discussions he may be subject to “blackmail”. 

Roger Stone, a former partner of Paul Manafort, is said to have connections with Julian Assange of Wikileaks, and who tweeted prophetically about the future release of the Clinton camp's Russian hacked e mails and the damage that they would wreak. He too was an advisor to the Trump campaign leaving about the time Manafort and Page left. 

Finally, Jay H. Ell cannot share the excitement of the appointment of Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of EXON, as Secretary of State. He too is a friend of Putin, has cut big oil deals with him that would reap great benefit after the removal of sanctions which he has spoken against. For his efforts in Russia he was awarded The Friend of Russia medal by Putin himself. Tillerson is regarded as one of the stabilizing figures in the Trump regime - G-d save us.

EVENTS THAT QUESTION TRUMP’S RELATIONSHIP TO RUSSIA

Just to look at two recent events which cause concern as to Trump’s judgement, veracity and his attitude to the current attention swirling around the Russian connection and Mike Flynn.

December 28, 2016: Obama announces sanctions on Russia 

December 29, 2016: Putin threatens retaliation and Flynn calls Russian Ambassador and discusses sanctions.

December 30, 2016: Putin announces he will not retaliate and POTUS elect Trump tweets that he knew Putin was smart.

January 15, 2017: Vice POTUS  Pence denies that Flynn discussed sanctions in his conversation with the Russian Ambassador.

January 26, 2017: Acting AG informs WhiteHouse that Flynn could be blackmailed as a result of sanctions content of conversation with Ambassador. Information not shared with Pence due to “attorney - client” privilege. 

January 28, 2017: Flynn sits in on Trump - Putin call.

February 9, 2017: News reports state that Flynn discussed sanctions. Pence finally informed.

February 13, 2017: Flynn “fired” according to Trump and “resigned” according to Conway.

February 14 and 15, 2017: Trump maintains that Flynn, the advisor he fired, is an excellent man hounded by the media and brought down by illegal criminal leaks. Trump stated that this was a media cover up for Hillary Clinton’s loss. The reason afforded for dismissal was because of his misleading of Pence not because he had done anything wrong. The same day Donald claimed, in the same breath, that the report that his operatives had been in contact with Russian intelligent agents was nonsense and that those that leaked the report were criminals.

Not reassuring behavior from the POTUS.

On the afternoon of the fourteenth of February Trump was hit with three investigations. The Government Ethics Committee recommended the WhiteHouse discipline Kellyanne Conway, the House Oversight Republican Chairman announced an investigation into the discussion of classified information in the open at Mar - a - Lago and the intensification of the investigation into the Russian connection was announced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

WHAT NOW?

The Democrats and most of the media want independent open enquiries into the whole issue. The Republicans thus far are only agreeing to Intelligence Committee meetings. Trump and the Chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee believe that the central issue is the leaks to the Press. Trump forgets that he cheered on the leaks that the Russians were responsible for in the election - claiming how he loved Wikileaks who published the Russian hacked John Podesta, Hillary’s campaign manager’s, e mails. He even called on Russia to hack Clinton.

The situation is fluid however with Senators John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Rob Blunt, and Bob Corker weighing in heavily against the Administration on the controversy. There is thus an increase in pressure for an open investigation and if more revelations surface it might be hard to resist. Trump’s poll numbers are the worst for any post war President and some legislators have already been hammered at Town Hall meetings. 

The FBI and CIA are obviously continuing with their probes. Obvious too is that certain officials believed it was in the Country’s interest to leak the information. The question is that if they have indictments will the new Attorney General Jeff Sessons follow through with charges. He refused in his confirmation to recuse himself from any investigation. 

The similarities of Russiagate with Watergate are there for all to see. However, the involvement of a foreign power being the party illegally influencing the electoral outcome adds a more serious dimension to the scandal. The POTUS has made no attempt to distance himself from the foreign perpetrators and even more significantly those in his camp that were in contact with the Russians. 

One thing is for certain is that if the quid pro quo was to remove sanctions the Republicans have stated that if there is any Trump move in that direction they will legislatively enshrine them. With that in mind what will be the Russian response? Already Putin has fired off a missile which is in violation of a 1987 treaty and sent a spy ship near the coast of America. It remains to be seen how Trump will react.

The pessimistic view is that Trump is going to turn this into a witch hunt against the media with Jeff Sessons in the Department of Justice leading the charge. This would be a thinly veiled attack on the freedom of the press as well as cleaning house in the intelligence agencies of independent agents. The optimistic outlook is that the massive press corps investigating the saga is sure to come with more revelations and one way or another there has to be an independent enquiry that is sure to spell the end of this scary episode.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Nothing has changed since Jay H. Ell opined in a previous blog, “To a large extent the American Constitution and it’s way of life is under siege. Standing in the way of Trump totalitarianism is the opposition from Mayors and Governors, the citizenry, the media, the courts and a couple of Republican lawmakers”. 

One fact is for certain Bannon’s strategy to create chaos and thereby confuse the opposition has boomeranged back. The shambolic WhiteHouse with only a tiny number of appointments in place cannot cope with the stresses they have created. They are back in Court very soon as the original Federal District Judge in Washington has refused to postpone hearings on placing a permanent ban on Trump’s Travel Executive Order. The protests abound while Mayors offer sanctuary to undocumented workers. All is not lost as Trump is going to hold a ticketed rally in Florida this weekend.