What is the difference between baseball and politics? In baseball, you’re out if you’re caught stealing.
Politicians have long been the punchline of jokes about honesty, hard work, and the ability to get things done. And it seemed for a while like the American people were ready to try something different. When business tycoon Donald Trump was elected to the office of the president over career politician Hilary Clinton, it seemed like there may be a new way of doing business in Washington. Not everyone was happy with that prospect, but everyone could agree that things were changing. Whether that was for the better or for the worse depends on who you ask.
But, issues soon came to light about the 2016 election that had all of us raising our eyebrows.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed in 2017 to conduct a “full and thorough investigation of the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.” The order came from then-Acting Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.
In the order, Mueller was given the authority to investigate links between Russia and the 2016 election, as well as prosecute federal crimes that came to light as a result of the investigation.
Since the investigation began, four major players in Trump’s presidency have been charged with federal crimes. Numerous other supporting individuals have faced legal charges as well.
Fox News recently published a summary of the charges filed and which politicians have been acting like the worst versions of political leaders that we have too-often come to expect.
Michael Flynn, who was Trump’s national security advisor during his campaign (and for a brief time at the beginning of his presidency) was convicted of making “materially false statements and omissions during an interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation” as part of the Russia investigation. Foreign Policy Advisor George Papadopoulos was convicted of similar charges.
Richard Gates and Paul Manafort were charged with financial crimes, mostly related to their work as political consultants and lobbyists. The indictment against them, filed in February of this year, charges them with acting as “unregistered agents of a foreign government and foreign political parties” when they worked on behalf of the government and political leadership of Ukraine. They allegedly received financial compensation that they did not report to the Internal Revenue Service. They later falsely reported the value of assets in order to obtain loans fraudulently. According to the indictment charges, the total amount of money involved in offshore accounts is quoted at more than $75,000,000.
Gates later pleaded guilty to the charges of federal conspiracy and lying to the FBI during their investigation. The plea agreement reached stated, “In consideration of [Gates’] guilty plea to the above offenses, and upon the completion of full cooperation as described herein, no additional criminal charges will be brought against the defendant for his heretofore disclosed participation in criminal activity, including money laundering, false statements, personal and corporate tax and FBAR offenses, bank fraud, and obstruction of justice.”
This suggests that Gates is cooperating fully with Mueller’s investigation.
A superseding indictment was filed against Manafort and his associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, outlining additional charges of obstruction of justice and conspirancy to obstruct justice. The charges specified that Manafort and Kilimnik “knowingly and intentionally attempted to corruptly persuade another person…with intent to influence, delay, and prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding.”
Paul Manafort was found guilty this week of eight of the financial crimes brought against him, including tax fraud, hiding foreign accounts, and bank fraud. He is still awaiting sentencing.
The big question now is how much, if any, involvement President Trump had in the whole situation. He maintains that the scope of Mueller’s investigation does not extend to these crimes and that he did not have any personal knowledge of collusion with foreign entities during his campaign.
The only thing that I have done wrong is to win an election that was expected to be won by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. The problem is, they forgot to campaign in numerous states!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2018
Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, recently pleaded guilty to charges of tax fraud, bank fraud, unlawful corporate contributions, and excessive campaign contributions.
For a leader who ran on his ability to buck the political status quo, it sure seems like President Trump is surrounded with people who spin the truth, evade regulations, and even outright lie. In short, the political outsider has surrounded himself with the worst kind of politicians.
As the investigation continues, we will see how it plays out for President Trump. But with the number of those falling around him, he has to be getting nervous. At best, he was unaware of where the loyalty of those around him really lay, as well as the financial contributions being made to his campaign. At worst, Trump was part of the efforts to work with foreign powers to influence the election. I would expect a leader with as much power and responsibility as the president to have more situational awareness of what those around him in positions of influence were doing.
The good news is that our system of government is both structured and capable of investigating these claims. Even D.C.’s mightiest, with multi-millions of dollars at their disposal, are not above the law. Even the president himself is subject to those same laws.
And as politicians rise and fall, we can be comforted that we have a strong system of government to protect what the true statesmen in our nation’s history fought so hard to establish and protect—a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
