On Wednesday morning, President Trump freaked out in a series of tweets:
“… This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!”
For all the talk from Trump defenders and even some in the mainstream media that the Manafort trial has nothing to do with Trump, the president plainly feels differently. So why should he be so upset, again showing that his objective has been to shut down (i.e., obstruct) the ongoing Russia investigation?
There are a slew of reasons why the trial should trouble Trump, not the least of which is a possible conviction (carrying what amounts to a life sentence) against the president’s former campaign chairman. That’s not going to help Trump’s effort to paint the entire Russia investigation as a “hoax.”
The trial also connects to Trump in other ways. As the Post has reported:
“Manafort collected more than $60 million between 2010 and 2014 from his Ukraine work, where President Viktor Yanukovych, an ally of the Kremlin, was Manafort’s ‘golden goose,’ (Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo) Asonye said.
“When Yanukovych had to flee Ukraine for Russia in 2014, Manafort’s ‘cash spigot’ was shut off, the prosecutor said, and the political strategist set out to generate money by lying to banks on loan applications.”
And then Manafort went to work for Trump. For free! And led the campaign when the Republican National Committee platform was changed in Russia’s favor (dropping support for arming Ukraine, for example). And offered briefings for Kremlin-connected Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. In essence, the trial is the prequel to the story of the Trump campaign’s multiple contacts with Russia.
“Manafort is a mirror image of Trump. He is a man seduced by the oligarch wealth of the former Soviet Union,” says Max Bergmann of the Moscow Project. “Putting profit over principles, he ends up becoming entangled, entrapped and then a witting tool of Russian interests.”
Confirming the presence on the campaign — at its highest level — of a guy as thick as thieves with the Russians will begin to chip away at Trump’s emphatic denial of any contacts or ties with Russia.
Establishing that Trump’s one-time campaign chief was heavily connected with Kremlin characters doesn’t prove conspiracy to acquire help during the election, but it sure does bolster the credibility of the investigators and underscores how preposterous were the dozens of denials that the campaign had any Russia contacts. A campaign chief down on his luck going to work for free for Trump certainly provides the back story for Manafort’s efforts to “monetize” those Russian connections.
In other words, Paul Manafort’s trial will set the table for what follows.
Jennifer Rubin writes for The Washington Post.
