Investigation into Russia's involvement in the campaign: Will Trump fall?

Investigations into Russia's involvement: Can this touch Trump?

On the day Donald Trump called James Comey, the former FBI director, at dinner to demand loyalty, a key interview was happening. George Papadopoulos, former foreign policy adviser in Trump's campaign, was asking about the contacts he had had with a Russian-related professor who had offered the Trump rival Hillary Clinton's qualities.

Papadopoulos had lied at that meeting on January 27, as revealed yesterday, Monday, October 30th. He is the first person to face criminal charges linked to interactions between Trump and Russia during last year's presidential elections.

And, worse for the White House, the indictment against him says that, after his arrest in the International Dulas Airport in July, he had met with the government in many cases to provide information about the responses he had given to” which shows that he has switched sides and is now helping Robert Muller.

Preet Bharara, former US legal representative for the southern district of New York, who had been fired from Trump, had issued a tweet like this: “Special Adviser Mueller appears to have a collaborative witness, and he is George Papadopoulos. That's significant. Only time will show how meaningful. ”

The discovery came on the day that campaign chief Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates were also indicted on 12 counts of conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to deliver money, failure to register as a foreign agent, charges of false statements and non-report bank accounts.

These were the first public actions to be undertaken by Muller's procrastinated investigation into the possible links of Trump's campaign with Moscow. Even in the best of times for a president of the United States, this would be extremely damaging. And for this president, this can only be the beginning.

The Trump made a special effort for him to lower the meaning of what happened, and to divert attention elsewhere. I'm sorry, but this is a year ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump's campaign,” he wrote to his Tweeter. “But why aren't the Democrats and old Hillary in the spotlight?

Three minutes later, he added: ♪

It is true that the suit against Manafort does not mention Trump or Russia's involvement in the election campaign. But they show that he has been charged with illegal external lobeing through a Ukrainian political party that maintains strong pro-rus attitudes since 2005.

The Center for the American Progressive Action Foundation wrote: “The inclusion of money laundering reflects something very important: convenience. If Manafort's partners associated with the Kremlin were aware of the money laundering crimes, that would be beneficial to Donald Trump's campaign leader. ”

And the fact is, with so many skeletons firing at his desk, that Manafort was agreed to work for Trump suggests that the campaign did not apply the type of extreme verification that the president now defends in connection with immigrants in the United States. They did not verify the Manual [if they did not cooperate with it]. The indictment filed charges Manafort and Gates with having raised tens of millions of dollars through foreign companies and bank accounts.

Manafort é campaign chief from March to August 2016 was also among the participants at the June meeting in Trump Tower with a Kremlin-related lawyer, which raised doubts about possible co-ordination between the campaign and Moscow. Gates, unlike Manafort, never quit the campaign, and was on the inaugural committee and visited Trump at the White House.

The indictment against Papadopoulos offers strong evidence that Russia was involved through Trump's campaign in the American elections. The administration probably means that Papadopoulos, who was declared famous this month for false statements to FBI agents, played a limited role in the campaign and did not have direct access to Trump, as was with other dark figures like Carter Page.

But the indictment, which was issued Monday, is terrible. “Papadopollos prevented the FBI's investigation into the existence of any connection or co-ordination between individuals related to the campaign and the Russian government's efforts to intervene in the 2016 presidential elections,” stated there.

The international energy lawyer was initially told investigators that the professor was nothing but a man who spoke of connections and similar things” when he really understood that the professor had “substantial connections with Russian government officials,” says the document.

Robert Mueller said Papadopoulos had told FBI agents that he had kept in touch with an unnamed foreign agent who claimed to have been ill-assembled to name the Hillary Clinton Democrats in the form of thousands of emails, and that Papadopoulos claimed these contacts were made before joining the Trump campaign. However, Papadopoulos has actually met the professor only after he became part of Trump's campaign, according to the indictment.

The Manafort issue was not as unexpected as the initial reports arrived Friday evening, but Papadopoulos ' case probably caught Trump himself by surprise. The president spent the weekend as usual trying to throw mud elsewhere to obscure the whole picture of the event. On Sunday, he called Muller's investigations “Witchage” and made a tweet saying that the Trump/Russia co-operation did not exist”.

Fox News and other conservative media will probably remain loyal to the president, and will contest the importance of these charges and try to shift attention to Clinton. And maybe Trump means at his meetings that he doesn't see any Russians in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, or other countries.

However, the likelihood that these investigations lead to Trump's fall has diminished again. People will talk. Mattew Miller, former justice department speaker, wrote: “Muller's choreographed shocks today send clear signals to each Trump official: co-operate and get a easier sentence or resist and nailed. ” Get translated by Guardian, Periscope