TRUMP: WHY LIE ABOUT OBAMA?

Donald Trump after a brief break from lying, ( The Washington Post Fact Checker noted that for the first time in memory it didn’t have to fact check Trump for a whole twenty - four hour period), tweeted that Barack Obama,“Bad or Sick Guy”, personally ordered a wiretap on Trump Towers. He wailed McCarthyism, Nixon/Watergate and “Tapp, (sic), during very sacred election process”. The next day he followed it up demanding an enquiry into Obama's alleged felony.

Why would he do something so outrageous and easily provable as that lie? The answer is simple - it suddenly halted the discussion on the Trump Russian connection. 

TRUMP’S DIVERSIONARY TACTIC - OBAMA BUGGED TRUMP TOWERS!

Trump knows the conventional media still don’t know how to handle his unashamed lying as the Sunday talk shows proved. Their discussions ranged from outright shock, to how to prove Trump wrong, to whether it was justifiable to ouright call this garbage lies. “Maybe one should wait and see?”,  “Are the FBI entitled to acknowledge this?” or “How does one know that he doesn’t really believe it?” were common contributions to the Trump debate. Then the politicians promised to investigate and Lindsey Graham threatened that the world would come to an end if Obama indeed did do this. Some Republicans in Congress want to send this matter to the Intelligence Committees. In fairness the consensus among the sane is that Trump has gone off the rails.

Trump also knows that his base will believe it or at least agree on the Obama probe. To the fawning sane around him he can always grudgingly concede much later, “Barack Obama didn’t wire tap me - period”. Some in the press will  then herald this as a sign that the much awaited transformation in the POTUS has finally begun, again!

The fact that the former Director of Intelligence James Clapper has categorically denied that the Intelligence Agencies that he oversaw did not wiretap Donald Trump nor did the FBI seek a warrant to do so will not put a stop to this madness. In a futile last ditch effort to save the President from himself FBI Director Comey asked the Justice Department to reassure Trump that there had been no wire tap. However Trump may rant there is no reason that Jay H. Ell will be sidetracked. So onto the real deal - Russia.

WHERE WERE WE MARCH 2? OH YES IN RUSSIA

So let us get back to the Russian connection which amongst all the chaos surrounding Trump stands out. Let us get back to where the debate was on March the Second following the revelation that yet another member of the Trump camp, the Chief Cop to be, Jeff Sessions, at his confirmation hearing as Attorney General had lied, or should Jay H. Ell say misspoke.  He initially claimed that he had had no conversations with the Russian Ambassador. His explanations as to why he waited for the Washington Post to jog his memory before recalling the meetings with Putin's representative were facile. He had extremely good recall in some areas of the interactions but where it mattered no recollection whatsoever. He claimed he  had met the Russian Ambassador at the Trump Republican Convention as a Senate Member of the Armed Committee although the Senate account is not where his expenses for the meeting were paid from.

But Sessions is just one more strand in what is building up to be scandal of monumental proportions. At least he had the good grace to kinda recuse himself from some of the possible related investigations. This as opposed to resigning and having himself charged with perjury.

THE RUSSIAN CONNECTION

• It is incontrovertible that Russia hacked, spread false news and the like in an attempt to subvert the American Electoral Process. Let that sink in - seventeen American Intelligence Agencies came to that conclusion and Obama instituted sanctions as a result. They didn’t wage conventional war to change the political process or influence hearts and minds in America they waged cyber warfare. They didn’t physically break into the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters, they hacked it electronically. John McCain has outright called the Putin behavior an act of war. The Russian Tzar did this with two objectives in mind - to weaken the American Democratic Process and to favor one candidate over another, namely Donald J. Trump. 

• It is fair to say that Russia and America, while not in a declared war are at opposite sides of the world political divide. Without going into too much detail Russia are threatening NATO, America’s major military alliance. Most recently they invaded Ukraine, a country that desires to join NATO, and seized Crimea which is a strategic chunk of the Ukraine. As a result America initiated sanctions. Putin and Obama have been on opposite sides in the Syrian Civil War - the former backing the dictator Assad and America supporting the rebel factions. 

• In his campaign, while the ongoing hacking and release of documents to Wikileaks was going on Trump praised and supported Putin. The Donald even called on Putin to hack Hillary’s e mails. Trump denied to the bitter end of the campaign that it was Putin that was behind the hacking. He cheerfully used the Wikileaks releases, that have been credibly linked to Putin, to attack Clinton mercilessly. In short Trump capitilized on Putin's actions.

• A thirty five page dossier on the Trump Russian connection surfaced which the US Intelligence Services found credible enough to warn both Trump and Obama about. The purpose of the warning was that it contained material that could potentially be used as blackmail against Trump. The high power US intelligence delegation maintained that Trump was at risk of being blackmailed as a result of its salacious contents which detailed behavior and financial allegations. It was compiled by a Christopher Steele a former British MI - 6 agent. The agent is well known to the FBI who offered to pay Steele to continue with his investigation. The FBI have utilized Steele’s services in the FIFA corruption scandal and is regarded as "credible".

• The dossier contained, as yet, uncorroborated explosive material as to the motivation of Russian behavior in their support of tilting the US election in favor Trump. The report alleges that that the Russians believed that had material to blackmail Trump into their bidding.

Arising out of all this is the question as to whether Trump colluded in any of the Russian activity.  An assertion that he vigorously denies. In fact it would constitute treason at the highest and impeachment at the lowest if he had. This charge cannot be confirmed or denied without an exhaustive impartial investigation. As matters stand the evidence at best is circumstantial.

TRUMP AND HIS CAMPAIGN’S STRANGE RELATIONSHIP WITH PUTIN AND RUSSIA

Trump.

It is fair comment that Trump has done nothing to disabuse conspiracy theorists that he is in this up to his neck. He has given so many different stories as to whether he has met Putin or not that it is quite a hoot to watch them being played over and over on TV. He has gone and on as to how wonderful Putin in and how “nice” it would be if America and Russians had good relations. In spite of denials of financial involvement in Russia his son is on record as saying that the Trump organization does a disproportionate amount of business with Russia. 

He has known relationships with Russian oligarchs which he denies. He had documented relationships with a Felix Later who Trump claimed at a deposition that he barely knows him. Felix Later connected him, according to Forbes, with several other oligarchs. More recently courtesy of Russian oligarch, Dmitri Rybolovlev The Donald more than doubled his money within two years when the Rybolovlev paid him ninety - five million dollars for a home in Florida that the Russian has never seen. A report on The Rachel Madow Show put Rybolovlev’s airplane, on a number of occasions, at the same time and place as Trump's as the latter darts around America. The rumor being that old Dmitri is the conduit to Vladimir.

Other stories abound about of Russian business connections.

Trump Campaign Team And Administration

The fact is that Trump’s campaign is littered with operatives that have had extensive contact with Russia and even Putin. (Blog: Trump: Nixon on Steroids - Russiagate?“) With monotonous regularity comrades have fallen off the Trump wagon as a result of their affiliation with Mother Russia, From Paul Mannafort, his partner Roger Stone and Carter Page to Mike Flynn, his former Chief Security Advisor they have all bitten the dust. More significantly there are three Cabinet members with significant ties to Russia. The Secretary of State Tillerson, former CEO of EXON, who has done deals directly with Russia, has opposed sanctions and has been awarded The Friend of Russia medal from Putin himself. Jeff Sessions, his Attorney General most recently had his cover blown when his memory improved for him to recollect meetings with the Russian Ambassador. 

Then there is Wilbur Ross the Secretary of Commerce who is Vice President of the Bank of Cyprus. The other Vice President is a Russian oligarch. The recently appointed CEO of Cyprus Bank is a former disgraced head of the Deutsche Bank. The Deutsche Bank paid a $7.2 billion fine for Russian money laundering. The Bank of Cyprus is the bank where the Russian oligarchs are thought to do most of their money laundering. Bloomberg reported that the Donald owes the Deutsche Bank $300 million. This is one of Trump’s many conflicts of interest that don’t gain too much traction because he has so many other issues.

NOW WHAT?

Trump hasn’t done himself much of a favor by his unbelievably recklessly accusations. It did succeed in the short term, as it always does, in deflecting attention from the main issue - Russiagate. However he might have given the Republicans an out to conduct a wide reaching bi partisan investigation with subpoena powers. They can now agree to investigate both Obama and the Russian connection. They may even find a way to get at Trump’s taxes. He has to come out so badly whatever happens.

Needless to say other issues will hit the fan while Russiagate carries on of its own momentum. There is the retreaded travel ban executive order which however carefully crafted is sure to ignite protest and court challenges, the ACA repeal and replace has to be unveiled sooner or later…and so on. 

Only 199 weeks to go of the Trump Presidency.