The Washington Post: What is so desperately trying to hide Trump?

After the former Trump adviser Michael Flynn found himself guilty of giving false testimonies and agreed to cooperate with the investigation of the Russian ties of the election headquarters, the investigation is included in the new phase, and there is more and more obvious - Trump has something to hide, writes Columnist the Washington Post Eudin Robertson. The Insider offers a complete translation of the article.

We know that President Trump and his election headquarters either conspired with Russia, trying to undermine American democracy, or actively sought to do it. We know that Trump clearly prevented justice, trying to stop the investigation of what had happened. We only do not know whether Congress will eventually fulfill their duty, whose members swore to defend the Constitution.

In addition, we do not know what the special prosecutor Robert Müller could still be discovered - especially about the international financial transactions of the Trump family. And what Müller could learn from the former Trump adviser to Michael Flynn, who found himself guilty on Friday that he lied to the FBI and now cooperating with the investigation. We also don’t know how far a frantic Trump can go far in his attempts to stop the investigation of Müller.

Federal law prohibiting “conspiracy” does not exist; This is true. But a special law is not required at all so that citizens and their representatives in the Congress make their judgment whether it is acceptable for the presidential candidate and participants in his campaign to maintain attempts to an hostile foreign state to intervene in the American electoral process, and then try to reward this foreign power by the weakening of sanctions. Yes or not?

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If there were no violations related to Russia during the election campaign, then why is Trump so desperately trying to hide it?

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I am not a fan of conspiracy theories that usually scatter during close consideration. And I am not going to carry out work for a democratic party, which was obliged to win obviously unskilled and unusual in the president of Trump - regardless of what the Russians did. But what we know now is truly amazing.

In July 2016, Trump publicly stated: “This is what I tell you, Russia. If you hear, I hope you can find the missing 30 thousand emails. ” He had in mind the materials removed from the private postal server, which Hillary Clinton used when she was a Secretary of State. Prior to this, according to American intelligence officers who worked for the state, Russian hackers stole tens of thousands of letters from the National Committee of the Democratic Party and the chairman of the election headquarters Clinton John Podesta, and these materials were published with the clear goal of harm Clinton.

We know that in June 2016 there are three most important figures at Trump's headquarters-his son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and head of the headquarters Paul Manafort-eagerly met with a lawyer who have connections with the Kremlin; She promised to share with them compromising evidence at Clinton, which the Russian state had. And we know that in April another intermediary promised Trump adviser to the foreign policy of George Papadopulos “Thousands of Electronic Letters” containing “dirty information” about Clinton.

Did anyone report these dubious methods of the FBI? No.

We know that in the last days before the elections, the Russian “cybervoins” held a propaganda campaign aimed at the accounts of potential Trump's voters in social networks. So far, we do not know how they managed to aim their propaganda with such accuracy.

We learned that after the election, Trump's transition team was actively trying to undermine the sanctions, which President Obama introduced in response to Russia's intervention in the elections. Flynn discussed the weakening of sanctions with Russia's ambassador Sergei Kislyak, and then lied about this FBI. The Advisor to the transition administration Kathleen McFarland claimed in a letter that because of Trump's sanctions, it would be more difficult to improve relations with Russia, "which had just given him American elections." Now the White House states that McFarland had in mind only that the Democrats are ready to say that Russia gave Trump the elections.

As for the obstacle of justice, Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday: “I had to dismiss General Flynn because he lied to vice president and the FBI.” If so, then the president knew that Flynn had committed a crime, even before he met with the director of the FBI James Komi and, as Komi claims, he instructed him to stop the investigation of Flynn's actions. Later, Trump fired Komi and told the host of the NBC television channel Lester Holt that the reason for the dismissal was the same investigation related to Russia. They say that he in a rough uniform demanded that other administration officials and members of the Congress terminate the investigation.

One of Trump’s lawyers, John Daud, said that he wrote a tweet accused of Flynn himself, not Trump. Later, in a conversation with the journalist of the AxiOS network publication, Mike Allen Daud insisted that the president "cannot interfere with justice, because he himself, according to the Constitution, is the head of the law enforcement system."

Now, when Flynn began to cooperate with the investigation of Müller, it enters the new phase. But let's not lose sight of the picture as a whole. Ask yourself a simple question, and let your common sense answer: if there were no violations related to Russia during the election campaign, then why is Trump so desperately trying to hide it?