Will the FBI find “damning evidence” against Trump?
Did people involved with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign collaborate with Russian officials to help him win the election? That – incredibly – is now the subject of an FBI investigation, said Eugene Robinson in The Washington Post. It was shocking enough when the intelligence community concluded that the Russian state had indeed meddled in the US election by hacking into the internet communications of prominent Democrats and leaking information designed to embarrass Hillary Clinton. But the confirmation last week from FBI director James Comey that his agents are looking into possible collusion by members of Trump’s team takes this story to a whole new level. The FBI will “follow the facts wherever they lead”, Comey told the House Intelligence Committee. Who knows where that will be?
Many are anticipating the imminent impeachment of President Trump, said John Cassidy in The New Yorker. That’s “wishful thinking”; it’s early days yet. Comey has merely confirmed the existence of a probe – we don’t know if it will uncover damning evidence. There are grounds for thinking it might, though. Last week, CNN reported that the FBI had information suggesting Trump associates communicated with suspected Russian operatives to coordinate the release of hacked data. And Roger Stone, a long-time Trump ally, has admitted that, last summer, he was in contact with a Twitter account that was reportedly linked to Russian hackers suspected of stealing data from Democrats – though he “vehemently denies any collusion”.
What is clear, said Todd S. Purdum on Politico, is that this story will dog Trump for ages. “From Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton, history suggests it’s never a good thing for a president to have the FBI, with its nearly infinite resources and sweeping investigative powers, on his tail.” But there are dangers here for the Democrats, too, said Robert L. Borosage in The Nation. They’ve been far too quick to assume the worst. The FBI probe will no doubt turn up “unseemly financial ties” between Trump acolytes and the Russian state, but it’s not as if Democrat operatives never sell their services to dodgy regimes. The party must beware of getting too obsessed with this story. Remember what happened to the Republicans when they relentlessly pursued the impeachment of Clinton, while he focused on jobs and welfare? They “got slaughtered in the midterms”.