To Collude With Russia, Trump Went To Jared

Well, another day, another four bombshells. And this time one of them went off in the very heart of Trump’s presidency.

First, the New York Times reported that Trump himself boasted about firing Comey in his meeting with the Russians to which the US press was barred and which had been requested by Vladimir Putin himself. Trump told Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Kislyak “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off…I’m not under investigation.” That is yet another admission by the President that his firing of Comey was obstruction of justice.

The Times story quoted a source within the administration who read from a document summarizing the meeting in question. That itself raises some questions because the White House had refused to release a transcript of the meeting when it was reported that Trump had also compromised one of the most highly classified secrets that US intelligence has. That intelligence was provided by a third country, apparently Israel, and was not supposed to be shared with other governments, and certainly not Russia. Trump described to the Russians a plot by ISIS, thereby possibly unmasking one of the most valuable agents inside ISIS.

Russia, however, said it had tapes or a transcript of the meeting and would be happy to provide them. The Times story, although quoting an American official, did not indicate the source of the document that official was reading from.

The third big story yesterday came from McClatchy who reported that the Russia investigation now includes looking into a White House cover-up and possible obstruction of justice. While this is hardly a surprising development, the fact that an anonymous Justice Department official confirmed this expansion of the investigation is important. Based on Trump’s own statements, it would be hard to imagine that the investigation would not, at some point, have to focus on obstruction of justice not only by the White House but possibly others no longer working for Trump.

Later in the evening, the Senate Intelligence Committee announced it will have James Comey himself come before them in open testimony sometime after Memorial Day. That will be riveting television as Comey is likely to outline the many times he felt pressure from the White House and contradict Trump’s blanket denials about conversations where Trump asked Comey to back off the investigation of Flynn or to put out a statement saying Trump himself was not being investigated.

But the second story of the afternoon was the real bombshell. In it, the Washington Post reports that a current senior adviser to Trump had become a person of interest in the Russian investigation. The senior adviser was not named and it is unclear just how many officials are covered by that label. But it certainly must include Bannon, possibly Miller, Sessions, Kushner, Pence, and Priebus. It certainly must have made for an awkward flight with all of them on the same flight to Riyadh.

Whether the person of interest is part of the investigation into collusion or improper financial dealings or a cover-up is unclear at this time. And it expands the probe beyond the original suspects of Flynn, Manafort, Stone, and Page and brings into the current White House. This is devastating for Trump’s defense because the usual statement that the people being investigated were merely fringe players in his campaign is no longer acceptable, if it ever really was for Manafort and Flynn especially.

While my initial thought that the person of interest might be Bannon or Miller, unconfirmed reporting suggests it may be Jared Kushner. If that is the case, it would be logical to think his involvement probably is associated with improper financial dealings. We do know that Kushner had lied about his own contacts with Russian Ambassador Kislyak and has had dealing with a Putin-controlled Russian bank in the past. But the Independent is reporting that the investigation into Kushner focuses on actual collusion with Russia during the campaign.

If the Independent’s report is true, and it is receiving some corroboration from other news outlets, it really could be the death of the Trump presidency. It would be hard to imagine that Trump could somehow claim ignorance of his own son-in-law and most trusted adviser colluding with the Russians during the campaign. And it would certainly explain Trump’s many attempt to obstruct the inquiry.

None of this, the expansion of the inquiry into obstruction of justice, the coming testimony of Comey, and the reality that a current adviser has become a target, is good news for the President. The noose around Trump gets tighter and tighter.