Donald Trump tried to insulate himself with a cabinet full of Russia co-conspirators. It’s backfiring.
What’s the old saying? In Donald Trump’s case it might be “Keep your friends close, and your co-conspitators closer.” The new revelation that Jeff Sessions repeatedly communicated with the Russian Ambassador during the election comes just three weeks after Michael Flynn was forced to resign for doing the same. It appears Trump thought he could insulate himself by filling his key White House positions with people who were as guilty on Russia as he was – but now it’s backfiring.
Trump’s plan wasn’t necessarily a bad one. By filing his key administration positions with his own Russia co-conspirators, he ensured that they would all have the same interest in burying the scandal that he did. By picking Michael Flynn as his National Security Adviser, it meant he started off each morning with a security briefing from someone who had the knowledge and motivation to tell him whatever he needed to know about the Russia investigation. And by picking Jeff Sessions as his Attorney General, he ensured that the person in charge of deciding whether to prosecute him for the Russia scandal would have no interest in doing so.
But the plan is now unraveling in real time with another new shoe dropping by the day if not by the hour. Michael Flynn lasted just twenty-four days in his role of having Trump’s back before he had to resign in disgrace over his role in the Russia scandal, an embarrassing incident that sent a signal to the intelligence community and investigative reporters that they were correct to continue pursuing the Trump-Russia investigation. Sessions may or may not have to resign, but based on the way the political winds are now blowing, it sounds a lot like he’ll end up having to recuse himself and allow a special prosecutor to handle the investigation.
Worse for Trump, this now tells everyone involved where to look next. We can all now see Donald Trump’s pattern: his Russia co-conspirators are right there next to him in the White House. So who else is in on it? Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has deep financial ties to Russia, so he may have been in on the election rigging plot. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has recently been exposed by Rachel Maddow for potentially having money laundering connections to both Trump and Russia. And Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has strange ties to Trump’s Russian email server, a matter which Palmer Report is still investigating.
So not only did Donald Trump set himself up for a pair of devastating Russia scandals early on in his presidency in the form of Flynn’s demise and Sessions’ impending demise, he’s also telegraphed where to look next. Now the intel community and reporters can be confident that digging into the rest of Trump’s cabinet and top White House advisers is the right path for identifying and taking down his next co-conspirator — in the name of ultimately taking Trump down himself. Help us investigate Trump-Russia!
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