OPINION:
Guilt casts a wide shadow in an interconnected world. As special counsel Robert Mueller expands his investigation to ever wider circles of the relationship, as it might be, between the Trump presidential campaign and all things Russian, the list of those falling under official suspicion grows longer.
Given enough time, the Mueller machine may validate the premise that all living things are separated by no more than six degrees of association. In the meantime, Trump voters are well advised to purge their liquor cabinets of Russian vodka, particularly if the spirits were a gift, lest they get a visit from the G-men.
Only two months into his new job, the former head of the FBI has apparently blown past the boundaries of his writ to look for collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russian agents of influence. Now he wants to sift through Mr. Trump’s businesses, going back a decade or more, long before the White House was in Mr. Trump’s sights. Malice aforethought is usually applied to crimes of violence, but Mr. Mueller’s suspicions now run wild.
The president has business interests all over the world, with Trump Towers in India, Turkey and the Philippines. There is no building that bears his name in Moscow, but he did build Trump Soho in Manhattan, a condominium complex, with Russian partners. He sold a Florida mansion to a Russian in 2008 and in 2013, he sold his Miss Universe Pageant to Russians, who staged the event in Moscow two years before Mr. Trump announced his candidacy for president. Those deals more resemble the work of a business tycoon than a presidential candidate, but never mind.
The president and his lawyers say they believe Mr. Mueller has baited his hooks for a classic Washington fishing expedition. “Those transactions are in my view well beyond the mandate of the special counsel,” says John Dowd, a Trump lawyer. “[They] are unrelated to the election of 2016 or any alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and most importantly, are well beyond any statute of limitation imposed by the United States Code.”
Further fishermen with rod and reel are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who set out to take testimony from Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort behind closed doors. They are expected to face scrutiny for various election-season contacts with Russians who might have been an acquaintance of an acquaintance of a Moscow mover and shaker. Besides the unsubstantiated charges of Russian collusion, there’s much more persuasive evidence that officials in Barack Obama’s administration used the Russia-initiative narrative as cover for conducting surveillance of Trump associates as a means to sabotage the incoming administration.
Big fish swim in that pond but angling there is prohibited. Susan Rice, Mr. Obama’s National Security Adviser, is said to have made a hush-hush visit to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday to explain why she “unmasked” the names of Trump associates. She first denied on television that she had done any such a thing, only to admit later that yes, she did.
Records of Susan Rice’s unmasking chores have been locked away among documents bound for Barack Obama’s presidential library on the south side of Chicago. So far, there’s no sign that Congress will try to get them back, though it easily could. What’s becoming clear in all this is that the anglers in the swamp have a taste only for Donald Trump.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.