If you’re either Donald Trump or part of the 38.4 percent of Americans (as measured by FiveThirtyEight) who think he’s doing a good job, the news that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has cut off contact with Trump’s lawyers probably sent your eyebrows into your hairline. After all, it’s a pretty strong indication that Flynn is at least putting out feelers to Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the investigation of Russia’s attempt to hack the presidential election.
Given Mueller’s past history, if Flynn flips, Trump could very well be finished. After all, he could potentially deliver two very big scalps–those of First-Son-in-Law Jared Kushner or Trump himself. But there could potentially be one other very big reason for Trump to be very afraid as Mueller Time marches forward. Mueller could be looking into Trump’s inexplicable decision to disclose information about an Israeli intelligence op to Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. That disclosure more than likely got an Israeli agent killed by ISIS.
While the nation was digesting Thanksgiving dinner, blogger Bill Palmer fired off this tweet summarizing just how bad Thanksgiving went for the Donald.
Donald Trump's day so far:
– Michael Flynn is cutting a deal
– Everyone is going to prison
– Seriously, they're all going down
– Incoherent Thanksgiving speech
– Tells Jared & Ivanka to go home
– Trump Jr dumber than ever
– Mueller eyeing Trump for treason
– It's still only 11pm— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) November 24, 2017
The last item refers to this tidbit buried in Vanity Fair’s extensive summary of the fallout from the Israel leak.
“Trump’s disturbing choice to hand over highly sensitive intelligence to the Russians is now a focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s relationship with Russia, both before and after the election.”
Palmer believes that if Mueller is looking into that disclosure, he may be looking for evidence of “something along the lines of treason.” Specifically, he believes Mueller wants to know if Trump “purposely sabotaged the United States and its allies for the benefit of the Russian government.”
There is no dispute that Trump’s decision to leak this to the Kremlin was grossly incompetent at the very least. But was it criminal? The mere fact that Mueller may even be asking that question should make Trump nervous. According to Palmer, it’s a sign that Mueller is taking a long, hard look at “the underlying nature of the relationship between Trump and Russia.” And that search may ultimately lead to definitive answers about whether Trump was compromised by Moscow–as well as the extent to which the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
The irony is staggering. The GOP spent the better part of two years kneecapping Hillary Clinton for using her private email server to play fast and loose with national security, and for supposedly getting American troops killed in Benghazi. Now it looks like an actual leak from Trump to Russia may have directly led to someone being killed.
When the best-case scenario is that it was an egregious lapse in judgment, that’s not a good sign. But Mueller may be looking into whether Trump not only broke every standard of decency that is known, but also broke the law.
(featured image courtesy Obama White House, part of public domain)
