Mueller's indictments yesterday forced Trump to finally admit that there WAS Russian involvement in our electoral process in 2016, something he's been calling a Democratic hoax for the past year. It's amazing when the "fake news" turns out to be true...
Trump tried to spin this by saying it completely exonerated him and his campaign, but it didn't - the indictments don't address the Trump campaign other than to say that an unwitting member or members of the campaign may have been approached by Russian agents. That's not an exoneration.
Trump is also claiming that he's clear because the indictments state that the Russian campaign began in 2014, prior to his decision to run for the presidency. However, he's ignoring two important points:
1. The Russians initiated the effort in 2013, shortly after Trump was in Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant; it became operational according to the indictment in 2014; and
2. Despite his claim to not having decided to run for office back then, the Trump Organization applied for a trademark for the phrase "Make America Great Again" on November 19, 2012 - about a week after Obama's second election - for use in politics and political fundraising. He had flirted with running for president years earlier, and he was clearly considering it the year before he went to Russia. Is that evidence of some sort of collusion? Absolutely not, but the timeline is not as clean as he wants us to think it is.
The Mueller indictments also corroborate additional parts of the Steele dossier - the collection of reports that certain members of the administration and the GOP have called "totally discredited", even though parts were previously corroborated by the FBI. We may never know the truth about the more salacious parts...
Mueller is not done by a long shot - there will be more indictments forthcoming and more shoes to drop, especially now that he's flipping people who worked in the campaign. Mueller is the consummate professional - there are no leaks from his office, he does not tip his cards, and he has a game plan that he's sticking to despite all the noise around him. This "hoax" has so far resulted in Grand Jury indictments of 5 Americans - 3 of whom have pleaded guilty - plus 13 Russian nationals and 3 Russian entities. That's some hoax. |
