Russia-gate

Donald Trump is demanding Congress investigate former president Obama for wiretapping Trump Tower. Sure, let’s waste a ton of taxpayer money on a pointless investigation about our last president wiretapping his successor. It’s an obvious ploy to get the news media to focus on something besides the Trump administration’s ties with Russia. But Russia-gate is a story that doesn’t want to go away.

If there were evidence that the wiretap story might be true, then it should be investigated. But Congress can’t investigate every kooky story that comes out of Trump’s brain. There is an adage that says, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” In the case of the wiretap story, Trump has offered no evidence to support his claim. “I read it on the internet” is not evidence.

The longer the Russia-gate story goes on, the more complicated it gets. Here are some of the players (so far).

Michael Flynn, Trump’s first pick for national security advisor, met with (and communicated with by phone and text messages) Russian officials including Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the US. (It is safe to assume that Ambassador Kislyak stays in contact with Russian president Vladimir Putin and serves as a channel for communications with Putin.) At first Flynn denied communicating with the ambassador, but after intelligence officials confirmed it was true, Flynn admitted it and was fired for misleading the administration.

Trump senior aide (and son-in-law) Jared Kushner met with the Russian ambassador.

Trump attorney general Jeff Sessions admitted meeting with the Russian ambassador after first denying it.

Former Trump campaign director of national security J.D. Gordon met with the Russian ambassador.

Former Trump advisor Carter Page met with Russian officials including the Russian ambassador and Igor Sechin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin. Page also had business ties to Russia.

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was an advisor to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and also had business ties to Russia.

Trump secretary of state Rex Tillerson had business ties to Russia and was honored with an award by Vladimir Putin.

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen met with Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Artemenko.

It’s possible that the meetings and communications were harmless. But it’s also possible they were not harmless. What were these meetings about?  Were deals discussed that should not have been discussed? Were promises made? Why are people lying about meeting Russian officials or claiming they don’t remember? As of now, we have no answers.

There is another adage: where there’s smoke there’s fire. It’s possible this Russia-gate story is mere smoke. But where there’s this much smoke, someone needs to check for fire.