Marco Levytsky, NP-UN Western Bureau.
A month ago, we ran an editorial in which we suggested that the indictment of U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Manafort's business associate, Rick Gates, by a federal grand jury on 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, making false statements, and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts, was just the tip of the iceberg as far as Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion by associates of Trump, was concerned.
On the same day as Manafort and Gates were indicted (October 30), it was revealed that George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser for Trump's presidential campaign, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia. Papadopoulos made a plea bargain with the investigation in which he agreed to serve as a “proactive cooperator,” which implies that between the moment of his arrest and the unsealing of his plea agreement, Papadopoulos might have engaged his former colleagues on behalf of federal investigators. All this could lead to potentially more charges.
On December 1, much more of the tip of this iceberg surfaced. Michael Flynn, who resigned as President Donald Trump's national security adviser just 24 days into his administration, also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
The filing in a U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., dated November 30 said Flynn “willfully and knowingly” lied when he told the FBI he had not discussed U.S. sanctions imposed against Russia with Sergei Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador to the United States, reported RFE/RL.
Significantly this was the first charge brought against a high-level official who worked in the Trump White House, albeit briefly.
As usual, Trump has attempted to dismiss this latest development. “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies,” he tweeted on December 2.
“It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!” he added.
But, according to By Niall Stanage of The Hill, a top U.S political website, this news “delivered a seismic shock to the Trump team”.
“Terrible,” was the verdict of one source close to Trump, speaking to Stanage on condition of anonymity. The source added that Mueller’s success in getting Flynn to flip was “very dangerous” for the president.
Stanage added that court documents state that Flynn had been directed by “a very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team” to contact representatives of foreign governments, including Russia, and try to persuade them to derail a resolution critical of Israel at the United Nations.
Multiple news outlets have reported that this person is Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.
The Flynn developments will also fuel speculation about whether the president obstructed justice when he asked then-FBI Director James Comey to back off the Flynn case, as Comey has testified, and then fired him.
Increasing parallels are being drawn between this and the Watergate scandal which resulted in former President Richard Nixon`s resignation when faced with the prospect of impeachment for obstruction of justice.
Michael Glennon, who served in the U.S. Senate Office of the Legislative Counsel during the Watergate crisis, said there were clear parallels to when Nixon’s White House counsel, John Dean, testified to a Senate committee and implicated administration officials in the Watergate burglary.
“John Dean broke the dam and the question is whether Mike Flynn’s testimony is the dam breaker. That remains to be seen, but I would not be sitting pretty if I were in the Oval Office,” he told RFE/RL.
“Merely meeting with representatives of the Russian government or encouraging subordinates to meet with members of the Russian government does not, in and of itself, constitute obstruction of justice,” he said. “Now, if lying to the FBI is part of a larger scheme aimed at preventing the law enforcement authorities to learn about illegal activities, that’s a different question.”
But the implications of the Russia probe far outweigh the Watergate crisis. As we noted in our earlier editorial, Watergate involved obstruction of justice in what was essentially “a third-rate burglary”. What is involved here is nothing less than obstruction of justice in the gross interference in a democratic U.S. election by a hostile foreign power, which happens to be the successor state to what the late Ronald Reagan once termed “the evil empire”.
As such it is without doubt the greatest crisis facing U.S. national security since the Civil War and the biggest foreign affairs crisis in that country`s history. Certainly Trump`s presidency has been extremely beneficial to Moscow. Not only does Trump lavish praise on Vladimir Putin, not only is there a huge money trail that leads from Russian oligarchs to Trump Tower, but Trump`s disrespect for America’s traditional allies and his continued irresponsibility and recklessness on the diplomatic front has diminished the U.S. standing on the global stage, while greatly raising that of the Russian Federation. And as Vladimir Putin rubs his hands in glee at this continued diplomatic chaos, the rest of the world can only shudder in fear.
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