House and Senate Investigations

Donald Trump began the week, and incidentally, the first day of hearings on Russian interference in the U.S. elections by the House Intelligence Committee, by tweeting his innocence: James Clapper and others stated that there is no evidence Potus colluded with Russia. This story is FAKE NEWS and everyone knows it!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 20, 2017 Actually, everybody does not know it. If they did, they wouldn't be investigating. After the Michael Flynn and Jeff Sessions fiascos, there are plenty of legitimate questions to be asked and many honest answers demanded. So far, everything the Trump administration has said and done has only made Trump and his team look more, not less, guilty. Trump followed this up with two additional tweets, spaced some minutes apart as if he were pausing as he grasped at straws that would divert attention away from the guilty: The Democrats made up and pushed the Russian story as an excuse for running a terrible campaign. Big advantage in Electoral College & lost!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 20, 2017 The real story that Congress, the FBI and all others should be looking into is the leaking of Classified information. Must find leaker now!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 20, 2017 Yes, yes, it's that pesky leaker rather than the damaging information that has been leaked. This is the line Trump and his supporters have been pushing all along. The problem is not that Trump is in cahoots with the Kremlin but that somebody let the cat out of the bag. As security consultant John Schindler tweeted last night, I've tracked Russia's global disinformation network for 2 decades. Putin's lie machine now includes the White House.https://t.co/WyxZhc7lyP— John Schindler (@20committee) March 19, 2017 And that is precisely why Donald Trump is desperately tweeting his innocence this morning. The net is closing, as inadvertently or intentionally revealed by Rep. Devin Nunes yesterday on Fox News that somebody in the administration is under investigation. Trump's Russia connections are unraveling and there seems to be nothing he can do to stop it. We can be certain that Nunes, who has already ordained Trump's innocence, will find nothing, but the House Intelligence Committee is not the only investigation, as the Senate Intelligence Committee is also conducting its own investigation. Both those committees are headed by Trump supporters, but Republicans John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), whose Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism (which, by the way, has jurisdiction over the FBI) plans an investigation of its own and this will be a bipartisan effort between Graham and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). Donald Trump's darkest days are ahead of him, and his Monday morning tweet shows that whatever else he keeps himself in ignorance of, he is well aware of that fact.

House and Senate Investigations

As Russia Hearings Begin, An Increasingly Desperate Donald Trump Tweets His Innocence