Donald Trump proves himself guilty on Russia
Collusion can be difficult to prove. It’s not enough to merely prove that certain meetings took place or that certain conversations happened; you have to prove intent. Moreover, in the case of Donald Trump, you have to prove that he himself was in on his campaign’s collusion with Russia, and not merely his advisers and underlings. But now Trump has gone and made it easy for everyone involved: he’s gone and proven himself guilty.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is going to produce a boatload of evidence demonstrating that Trump’s campaign advisers colluded with the Russian government to try to rig the election in Trump’s favor. He may also be able to prove that Trump knew this collusion was going on. But the final piece – proving that Trump fully understood the criminal intent of what his advisers were doing – was always going to be the tricky part. However, that was before Trump went and picked up the phone and began calling Republican Senators.
This week we’ve learned that Donald Trump called a number of key Republican figures regarding Russia. Trump ended up cursing out McConnell for his unwillingness to sabotage the Russia investigation. He also tried to bully Bob Corker into killing the bill that took away Trump’s ability to lift sanctions on Russia. And he tried to bully Thom Tillis into ditching a bill that would protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller. In so doing, Trump is now demonstrating that he fully understands how guilty he is on Russian collusion.
Of course I’m no attorney. But it’s important to keep in mind that an impeachment trial is not a court trial. It’s a test of whether Congress believes that the President committed a serious enough crime to warrant removal from office. It ultimately comes down to the personal judgment of those in Congress. And Donald Trump just proved himself guilty, in an impeachment sense, by calling up members of Congress and asking them to sabotage the investigation. Trump just made it easy for them.
