We’re no longer connecting the dots from Russian hackers to Donald Trump. It’s now a straight line.
As the evidence has slowly trickled to the surface and we’ve been able to connect more of the dots, it’s gradually become clear that not only did the Trump campaign conspire with Russia to alter the outcome of the election, Donald Trump was directly in on the plot. Of course dot-connecting and logic alone aren’t enough to oust Trump or put him in prison. But now it’s no longer a matter of trying to connect the dots in the most complex criminal plot of all time. It’s a simple matter of drawing a straight line.
Friday’s indictments accused Russian government spies of hacking the Democratic Party and then giving those stolen secrets to an unnamed Trump associate, who then passed those secrets along to the Trump campaign. After initially trying to deny it, Trump’s oldest friend Roger Stone acknowledged that he is indeed the person referenced in the indictments. Stone also told CNN that his only contact in the Trump campaign was Donald Trump himself.
To be clear, Roger Stone is claiming that he’s innocent, and that his communications with the Russian government spies were “benign.” Special Counsel Robert Mueller has to prove his assertion that the spies gave the stolen DNC material to Stone, and then prove that Stone gave it to Donald Trump. But if he can do that, it’s the ballgame. Mueller would be drawing a straight line from the Russian hackers to Trump himself.
How does Robert Mueller prove this? He appears to have Roger Stone’s communications with the Russian government hackers, which should be enough to indict, arrest, and imprison Stone. From there it’s more complicated. If Stone cuts a plea deal and provides evidence that he passed the stolen intel on to Trump, that’ll do it. Stone has also claimed there was a FISA wiretap against him during the campaign, so Mueller may already have what he needs. But the upshot here is that we’re now looking at a stunningly straightforward path to proving that the supposed President of the United States treasonously conspired with a foreign enemy to alter the outcome of his own election. That would put Trump in prison for life.
