TRUMP WANTS FOCUS TO SHIFT
was publicly identified as one of five foreign policy advisers to the candidate. He had repeated contacts with an unnamed foreign professor who was an intermediary with the Russians and introduced him to a Russian woman who was described as “Putin’s niece,” referring to President Vladimir Putin.
The professor told Papadopoulos that the Russians had “dirt” on Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the form of “thousands of emails,” during a conversation that took place three months before hacked Democratic emails were made public.
While the indictment of Manafort and Gates did not touch directly on collusion, it made clear that the two were paid tens of millions of dollars over years leading up to the campaign by Ukrainian political leaders allied with Russia and that their efforts to defraud continued through their time with the campaign until early this year.
In the past, the president has signaled that he might dismiss Mueller if the special counsel exceeded what Trump considers the mandate of his investigation. Trump has also publicly noted that he has the “complete power to pardon” relatives, aides and possibly even himself in response to the special counsel investigation.
Democrats quickly warned Trump on Monday not to impede Mueller’s investigation. “The president must not, under any circumstances, interfere with the special counsel’s work in any way,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader. “If he does so, Congress must respond swiftly, unequivocally, and in a bipartisan way to ensure that the investigation continues.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-calif., said the indictment showed that Mueller “is doing his job” and that the process was working. “I’ll continue to support Bob Mueller as he follows the facts — his independence must remain sacrosanct,” she said.
Even before the indictment was unsealed, Trump’s supporters argued that it would not mean much if it were focused on Manafort’s private business activities rather than the campaign.
“This could be a big old nothing burger if it was pre-campaign, but post-campaign it’s going to be serious stuff,” Rep. Sean Duffy, R-wis., said on CNN. He added: “To taint Donald Trump with things Manafort did before the campaign, I think, is a leap too far.”
Manafort, a longtime Washington lobbyist and Republican operative, ran Trump’s campaign for several months last year before being dismissed in August 2016 amid questions about his work for Ukraine’s since-ousted pro-russian government. Trump and his aides have since sought to minimize Manafort’s importance to the president, despite reports that Manafort remained in contact with the White House even after the inauguration in January.
Trump started the morning seeking again to turn attention to the Democrats, as he did over the weekend. In his first tweet of the day, he focused on the firm that helped produce a dossier of salacious allegations against Trump during last year’s campaign and its links to Democrats who helped finance it.
“Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS,” Trump wrote. “The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK’D!”
He did not mention the fact that the firm that conducted the research for the dossier was originally hired during the Republican primaries by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website financed in large part by a prominent Republican donor, hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer.
After Manafort was brought to an FBI office on Monday morning, Trump sought again to turn the tables on Democrats. “But why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus ????? ” he wrote as part of his tweet dismissing the indictment of Manafort.