When
the news broke last week about the specific documents sought by Robert
Mueller, the special counsel heading the federal investigation into
Russia’s role in the 2016 election and whether Donald Trump’s campaign
colluded with the Kremlin, a chill fell over Trump’s already jittery
White House. The documents to be turned over covered some familiar
events that could well lead to Trump being charged with obstruction of
justice, or might show that his campaign was, at the very least,
interested in playing with the Russians.
The possible or even likely
obstruction charge would derive from Trump’s various efforts to block
the investigation. In particular, Trump asked FBI director James Comey
to go easy in his investigation of retired General Michael Flynn, the
former national security adviser whom Trump reluctantly fired,
ostensibly because he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the
nature of post-election telephone calls with the Russian ambassador.
Pence
then reassured the country that Flynn and the ambassador had simply
exchanged small talk, such as Christmas greetings. In fact, they had
discussed the possibility of Trump lifting sanctions that outgoing
President Barack Obama had imposed on Russia as punishment for its
interference in the election. Mueller no doubt wants to know if Trump
was aware of or consented to Flynn’s discussions.
Trump also asked
senior US intelligence figures to try to convince Comey to go easy on
Flynn. One mystery is why Trump was so anxious to protect Flynn. Does
Flynn have compromising information about the president?
Then there
was Trump’s firing of Comey in May, followed by misleading statements
from White House aides regarding why he had done so. But then Trump
blurted out in a television interview that when he fired Comey, he had
in mind “this Russia thing.” The next day, at a meeting in the Oval
Office, Trump told senior Russian officials that firing Comey had
relieved “great pressure” on him.
It’s definitely not a good idea, as
Richard Nixon learned during the Watergate scandal, for a president to
fire his own investigator. Trump’s firing of Comey saddled him with
Mueller, a former FBI director in Democratic and Republican
administrations, praised by politicians in both parties for his
integrity.
Trump is just one of the people at risk of criminal
charges as a result of Mueller’s investigation. Others in Mueller’s
sights are Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and Trump’s
son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump (said to
be the president’s favourite child), have offices in the White House,
and Kushner is involved in an absurdly broad array of issues, from
resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict to reorganising the federal
government.
Mueller has hired experts on financial crime – an ominous
development for other targets. While Mueller is investigating Kushner’s
campaign activities, he is also understood to be taking a close look at
Kushner’s immense real estate business. A few years ago, Kushner and
his father bought the most expensive building in New York City, 666
Fifth Avenue, leaving them enormously indebted and unable to finance the
mortgage. Jared Kushner’s eagerness to secure the large sums needed to
stay afloat has led him to seek foreign lenders, including a Russian
banker close to Vladimir Putin.
Mueller is also known to be putting
the squeeze on Manafort, a lobbyist and political consultant with a
history of helping dictators. One of his most infamous clients was the
pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych, who, upon winning the presidency of
Ukraine, imprisoned his main rival, the previous prime minister, on
trumped-up charges. Mueller’s team is poring over Manafort’s business
dealings – projects around the world, debts, funds stashed in foreign
tax shelters, suspected money laundering, and more.
To put pressure
on Manafort, Mueller even staged a pre-dawn raid on his home in northern
Virginia and let him know that he’ll be indicted – presumably to
persuade him to give up information about Trump. Although Manafort was
dropped from the Trump campaign last August, following embarrassing news
stories about his work in Ukraine, Trump, acting against the advice of
aides, continued to talk with Manafort into the early months of his
presidency. Also, it was recently revealed that in 2016, while Manafort
was still campaign chair, he offered to conduct briefings for a Russian
oligarch about the presidential campaign. Campaign chairs are usually
too busy for such a task.
Mueller obviously hopes to “flip” both
Flynn and Manafort. And the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., is also
at risk in the sprawling scandal. Of particular interest to Mueller is a
meeting held in Trump Tower in June 2016, between the Trump campaign’s
top brass and a Russian lawyer with close Kremlin ties, who had offered
Donald Jr. some dirt on Hillary Clinton, a prospect that excited the
candidate’s son. (“I love it,” he emailed in response.)
Donald Jr.
first described the meeting as having been a discussion about adoptions
of Russian babies by Americans (which Russian President Vladimir Putin
banned in 2012). In fact, there had been a discussion of the sanctions
and other matters of interest to Russia. Though Kushner and Donald Jr.
said nothing came of the meeting, that has not been established. Mueller
is also interested in Trump’s role in crafting, on Air Force One on his
way back from Europe, a statement that once again misled the public
about what was discussed at the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians.
For
more than a year, Trump has been adamant that he has no business
interests in Russia and has received no loans from the country. But his
softness toward Putin remains puzzling. Recently, it was discovered that
Trump’s business had been trying to build an enormous Trump Tower in
Moscow, an effort that continued into his candidacy, before being
dropped for lack of permits and land.
The attention paid to
Mueller’s Russia investigation waxes and wanes in Washington, DC. But
the inquiry won’t stop until Mueller is satisfied that he knows all he
needs to know. – Project Syndicate
* Elizabeth Drew is a regular
contributor to The New York Review of Books and the author, most
recently, of Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon’s
Downfall.
Michael Flynn, Robert Mueller and James Comey