The Roger Stone saga reveals flaws in Trump's "no-collusion" defense



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The indictment of Stone, Trump's oldest political advisor, reoriented attention to the fact that Trump and his team were transcending legal and ethical boundaries in an effort to defeat Hillary Clinton in an election involving a simultaneous operation of interference led by Russia.

The question for Mueller has always been to find out if there had been a criminal conspiracy among members of the Trump team to cooperate with Moscow's attempt to appoint him president.

Up to now, he has presented no evidence of such discovery, in a forest of charges, court rankings, trials and convictions of people surrounding the president in an investigation which seems to be getting closer to the oval office.

If Mueller establishes such behavior, it would answer the thorny question: why are so many people around us Trump – at great cost to themselves – repeatedly lied about their ties to the Russians?

Or, it is conceivable – if the special council could conclude that, even though it ver-up – it was not motivated by the desire to hide a crime, but was intended to spare Trump the Political embarrassment of non-criminal links with Russia?

But even if this is the case, the voluminous documents of Mueller and other documents available to the public The information established a behavior on the part of Trump and his assistants, who was right in the norms of behavior campaigning and showing a flagrant lack of respect for the integrity of a presidential election – part of the fabric of American democracy.

The Democrat-led House was to consider whether such activity was unethical and so contrary to American values ​​that it deserved to be sanctioned by subsequent action – or even an attempt in accusation.

A Doubtful Electoral Narrative

  AGing AG Whitaker: Mueller Almost Completed Inquiry

There is no doubt that the team of Trump was ready to go to the extreme To win in 2016.

In one of the many amazing revelations about Russia in 2017, the New York Times reported that Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr. ., had written in an email "I like it" when a Russian official "Dirt" to hand over to Clinton at a subsequent meeting at Trump Tower in New York.
A more recent bomb has raised new doubts about the observance of Trump's electoral behavior. Michael Cohen, the president's former lawyer, admitted to paying adult actress Stormy Daniels a hidden payment of $ 130,000 in violation of campaign finance laws, at the behest of the president.
When he pleaded guilty to a charge brought by Mueller in November, he said he had lied about the duration of a construction project of a Trump tower in Moscow. He had initially stated that the discussions had ended in January 2016, but corrected to indicate that they were continuing until June 2016.

This left open the possibility that Trump had not only lied when he did not have a liking. he had told the Americans that he had no commercial ties with Russia, but saw his campaign – a form of public confidence when he should have defended the interests of America – as a way to move things along in the direction of an agreement worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Another question Mueller could clarify is why Trump's decision former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has proposed proprietary data to Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime business associate, which has close links with the Russian intelligence services.

This episode was born this month of a failed campaign campaign by Manafort's lawyers. It is unclear whether the big lobbyist was acting alone, possibly for the purpose of transmitting information to the Ukrainian oligarchs to whom he was indebted.

It was immediately assumed that Manafort was acting at the request of other agents of the campaign and polling stations. The data may have helped Russian intelligence target misinformation campaigns on social media in major swing states. Mueller claimed in a separate indictment that a Kremlin-related troll farm had spent millions to influence Americans on social media, although the charges do not describe any coordination with the team. of Trump.

Trump has often shown disdain for accepted norms of behavior in the countryside. For example, the Republican candidate of the time called on Russia to find 30,000 missing emails from the private server used by Hillary Clinton while he was secretary of state.

Later in the day, according to a Mueller indictment, Russian intelligence agents spent hours trying to hack emails from an area used by Clinton's private office.
In August 2016, senior US intelligence officials personally warned Trump that foreign opponents, including Russia, would likely try to infiltrate his team or gather information about his campaign.
in October. US intelligence agencies have publicly announced that Russia has spearheaded efforts by DCLeaks and Wikileaks to free Democratic e-mails stolen by its spies.

The Trump nominee has repeatedly praised WikiLeaks for the emails that seriously damaged the Clinton campaign of the strain. 19659012] "I love WikiLeaks," he said at one point.

The public alerting intelligence agencies coincided with the release See a tape "Access Hollywood" containing shocking sounds of Trump making obscene comments on women.

Less than an hour later, Wikileaks launched a new series of emails that appeared to have been designed to eliminate the October sting. surprise that threatened to derail the entire Trump campaign.

Jerome Corsi, conservative author and conspiracy theorist, told CNN in November that Stone had called him several times that day to ask him to contact WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. release more material. Stone denies it.

Stone pleaded not guilty Tuesday in court against seven charges of false statements, falsification of witnesses and obstruction of the process.

He was not charged with conspiracy, although the indictment indicates how Stone would have coordinated the Trump campaigners on

In an intriguing passage, Mueller asserted that "After the July 22, 2016, broadcast of stolen emails (from the Democratic National Committee) by (WikiLeaks), a senior Trump campaigner was asked to contact STONE about any press releases and other information. WikiLeaks had on the Clinton campaign. "

This phrase sparked speculation as to whether the person giving this direction was Trump or a member of his family. Even though it was Trump's action, he would not necessarily act of a crime but could endanger him if he sought information from Wikileaks which he knew was wrong. ########################################################################################### They had been obtained illegally.

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Even though it is unclear whether the president led the activities of Stone, his presence near Trump during the year 2016 This campaign casts a suspicious light on the strategy that the president was pursuing to win.

Stone is a hyphen between Storm Watergate, when he worked for the infamous President Richard Nixon's sneaky gang and the Russian plot – potentially the biggest scandal in Washington. since the one who crushed the 37th president.

"Stone will do everything to win," Julian Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton University, told CNN recently. "I think a lot of Republicans shudder to see him again in the news, literally sporting Nixon signs and people doing this comparison between President Trump and President Nixon."

If Mueller does not establish activity in 2016, adds up to a criminal plot, Congress will have to decide whether to act to defend the US electoral system. If this is the case, it would not be the first time and lawmakers could learn from history

In an appendix to the final report of the Special Senate Committee on the Watergate scandal, chaired by North Carolina Sen. Sam Ervin defined this drama as an effort "to destroy, with regard to the 1972 presidential election, the integrity of the process by which the President of the United States is appointed and elected."

If Congress decides that Trump is guilty of a similar transgression, with or without Mueller's recommendation, then it must be determined if it meets the standard of a high crime and a misdemeanor , the imputation standard.

A debate is probably at this point on whether the ultimate sanction against a commander-in-chief is the election of the president.

After all, Nixon was already in office when the men of the president began to taint the integrity of the election of 1972.

Corey Brettschneider, autho r of the recent book "The Oath and The Office: A Guide to the Constitution for Future Presidents "indicates that a candidate who undermines elections can not be taken seriously if he then swears an oath to defend the constitutional system.

"Certainly, cheating during an election or committing illegal acts to influence an election undermines not only the integrity of the future president, but it also represents an existential threat to democracy, especially when It is collusion with a foreign government, "Brettschneider said.

"If Trump cheated on the verge of becoming president, he betrayed his oath to defend the basic law that underlies our system of self-government," he said.

CNN Marshal Cohen contributed to this report.

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