Dirty Rubles
Page 9
Michael Cohen, Trump’s “personal attorney” and “fixer,” is now known to have significant ties to Russian organized crime—and appears to be more mobster than lawyer. The “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels is merely the tip of an extremely large and dirty iceberg. Already it has implicated GOP donor and RNC deputy finance chair Elliott Broidy and Fox News talking head Sean Hannity. We do not yet know where the investigation into Cohen’s dealings will ultimately lead, or who else might be involved.
Mike Flynn was illegally lobbying for Turkey. Erik Prince met with the government of the United Arab Emirates. A Qatari financier met with key Trump associates at Trump Tower and subsequently was involved in the Rosneft deal; he also bragged that he had bribed Jared Kushner. Black Cube, an Israeli company whose clients included Harvey Weinstein, was hired by Trump; the US embassy in Israel was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. After hitting China hard for most of the campaign, President Trump has reversed course, and tweeted about helping a Chinese telecom company(!). We do not yet know the extent to which other countries—Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel, China, North Korea, and so forth—played a part in Trump/Russia, if they were allied with each other or acting independently.
It’s been suggested that Mueller has a mole operating inside Trump’s inner circle. Some argue that Jeff Sessions, the attorney general who has recused himself on Trump/Russia, is that mole; since his recusal, he’s seemed much less willing to vouch for Trump on the matter, and Mueller seems curiously content to let his perjury go unpunished. We do not yet know if Sessions is the mole, if the mole is someone else entirely (Donald McGahn, perhaps? Kellyanne Conway?), or if, indeed, there is a mole at all.
Mike Pence has extensive ties to several of the key collaborators (Paul Manafort, Mike Flynn, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen) and has proved one of the most durable Trump apologists, lying over and over and over again, about matters large and small, including Trump/Russia. Manafort, now under indictment for Conspiracy Against the United States and a laundry list of other crimes, selected Pence to be Trump’s running mate; he invented a story about the Trump private jet needing repairs, so that Trump would stay the night in Indiana to meet with him. After the Javanka-inspired ouster of Chris Christie, Mike Pence became chairman of the Trump transition team; this means that while all those meetings with Russians were happening in December 2016 and January 2017, Pence was the guy in charge, and thus ultimately responsible. His deputy chair on the transition team was Mike Flynn, who pleaded guilty to making false statements, and was certainly mixed up in much more. Rick Gates, Manafort’s deputy who was also charged with Conspiracy Against the United States and other crimes and is now cooperating with Mueller, was tight with Mike Pence well after inauguration, working closely with his chief of staff, Nick Ayers. We do not yet know the extent of Pence’s complicity, although his only viable excuse for not being intimately involved in Trump/Russia is ignorance. Was Pence really so clueless that he did not recognize what was happening all around him? Given that he was savvy enough to hire a very good attorney months before anyone else on the Trump team even realized they’d need one, I’d suggest that Pence’s ignorance defense is as bogus as his piety. If Mueller has the goods on the Vice President, this means Mike Pence will never be president; you don’t replace a guy up to his eyeballs in treason with one only up to his waist. But we don’t yet know the extent of Pence’s involvement.
For his help in contaminating the election, Putin has received many benefits: chaos, the erosion of American power and of NATO alliances, input on key personnel, the friendly ear of the US president, and as much help as possible on sanctions. We do not yet know exactly what Donald Trump received in exchange. Help with the election, for sure; suppression of kompromat, ditto—but what else? Debt forgiveness? More? The answer to this question, more than anything, will determine Trump’s fate.
The special elections since Trump took office, as well as recent history concerning midterm elections, suggest a mighty “blue wave” of Democrats will sweep through Congress. If the Dems take the House and the Senate, impeachment is a certainty—and I have maintained from Day One that Trump will resign before he subjects himself to an impeachment proceeding; that’s the only way he can control the narrative. Indeed, there is a not-totally-unrealistic scenario in which Nancy Pelosi succeeds Trump as president. But we do not yet know if Congress will flip. Gerrymandering and voter suppression laws are strong. People are apathetic, or else worn down by Trump (emotional exhaustion is part of the autocrat’s playbook). Shamefully—and tellingly—the government has done less than zero to safeguard our election process from further KGB attack; Trump has eliminated the position of cybersecurity coordinator; and the GOP Congress refuses to act to restore it. With so many variables in play, it is impossible to predict what might happen in November.
Finally, and most importantly, while we know Trump is guilty, we do not yet know if the American people will care. It may be that he was right all along, that he really could shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. Powerful forces shield him from the consequences of his actions, as they have all his life. When his every move is explained away by the talking heads at Fox News—and, more shamefully, by so-called “Christian” leaders like the loathsome hypocrite Franklin Graham—it becomes easier to fool the American people. Gaslighting is a real thing. Trump’s constant barrage of lies hit us like a brute-force cyber-attack. We begin to doubt our own sanity. Too, a not insignificant percentage of the country believes that Trump—the Seven Deadly Sins personified—was installed in the Oval Office by Divine Intervention, that his presidency is the result not of Putin’s meddling, but of God’s Will. Faith is remarkably resistant to logic and reasoning; antibiotics don’t work on a virus. How do we make these True Believers see the light? Or, barring that, minimize their influence?
Mueller is working as fast as he can—17 indictments and five convictions in his first year!—but what if it’s not fast enough? What if Trump moves to fire him, or to fire Rosenstein, to hamper the investigation? What if the final report “only” nails Trump on obstruction, and the GOP Congress doesn’t impeach? What if the report comes out, and it’s every bit as bad as we suspect it will be…and no one cares? Surely there must be more we concerned citizens can do than sit on our hands and wait for Mueller!
I’m pleased to report that there is. We can vote, for one thing, for candidates who will work to oppose Trump. We can lend our energies to those campaigns. We can continue to call our Senators and Representatives in Congress and voice our concerns. We can protest. We can march. We can also—and this is important—tell the truth, loudly and unapologetically. If the American people understand the extent of Trump’s crimes, his greed, his cruelty, his contempt for the country, its citizens, its traditions, its laws…if the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth can be reliably told…then Trump will fall, and fall hard.
Happily, this is something we have some control over. We all have the ability to seek out, and to broadcast, the truth about Trump/Russia. This humble volume is my attempt to do that. You can do it, too. Post Trump/Russia news on your Facebook feed. Open a Twitter account and retweet relevant stories. Don’t be afraid to broach the subject with your uncle, your brother-in-law, your parents. Call out ignorance. Use shame as a weapon. Be vigilant, be resolute, be unswerving. Strive, seek, find, and never yield.
The fate of the nation depends on it.
—Greg Olear
New Paltz, NY
22 May 2018
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