So you’re supportive of an investigation based on allegations, with no substantive evidence of any kind to support said allegation? But you’re hoping said investigation supports said allegation (Russia/Trump collusion of election hacking), even though it’s been months that we’ve been investigating this. And now, we have to increase the scope of the investigation, again, because of this allegation, wherein evidence as yet to be produced? Is this how the justice system works in your country, “GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT”?
First off, realize that this investigation was going on before it was publically disclosed that it was going on. The FBI purportedly told the DNC they were being hacked, not the other way around. (Not that the DNC handled this information with any particular competence, if published accounts are true.)
Among other things, Trump was building a great big building in New York back in 1998, right at the time when the Russian stock market collapsed and Russian financiers were looking for places to park their money, places that included major-city real estate. Trump had some problem getting funding in the US, because of some business failures he’d gone through. Russia, meanwhile, was not a place where business was (or perhaps even could be) conducted above board. To be fair: it was a rough place and all the money had the fingerprints of rough characters on it (and for all I know, still does). Still, it was money Trump could get access to. Trump also wanted to get a Trump Tower built in Moscow, and of course set up relationships in pursuing that. He got Russian investors to put money into at least one Florida project. When Trump took the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow, he told the press that he intended to get some large building projects done there. Russia has been a major source of financing for Trump projects over the years.
As for the home sale, Trump bought it for $41 million, but sold it for $95 million during the real estate collapse. The buyer, a Russian, never lived in it and has since had it torn down. That is a LOT of money changing hands and an odd situation. In addition, Paul Manafort, a Trump associate, has gotten huge wire transfers of money from Russia through work in politics there. Mr. Trump has also been effusive in his praise of Vladimir Putin over the years. He made many statements over the years to establish the impression that he had a relationship with Putin (to the extent of flatly saying “I do have a relationship” with Putin).
In other words, there is no doubt that Donald Trump has lots of connections to Russia and has made very significant use of Russian financing. More to the point, Russia is a place in the world where the business ethics and the comes and goings between business and political power are not “letter of the law,” to put it mildly. If the Russians were hacking computers or committing any other violations of the law against Hillary Clinton, of course there are going to be questions about whether or not any of this was also directly related to Mr. Trump. It does not take some big leap of the imagination to suppose that a connection exists.
Here is the thing: Mueller can pursue any lead he finds. He does not have to stick within the confines of the original reason he was appointed. This isn’t like a search warrant, where the searchers can only gather evidence covered by the warrant. Legally speaking, it is much more open-ended than that. More to the point, Mueller and his staff do not have to announce what additional crimes they believe may have been committed as their investigation goes on. If they were to find something totally unrelated to the original reason for the investigation, they would not automatically be going beyond their jurisdiction.
The Clintons did not like this situation when Ken Starr was pursuing leads on them, and it is no surprise that Mr. Trump resents it, too. It is hard to argue that he has done nothing to attract such an investigation, though. Whoever was his advisor before he decided to run for the highest office in the land surely had to have told them this was a possibility. The resentment is understandable, but he had to have been told that the day could come when politics would make his finances into an open book.
I have to think that someone also had to have told him that firing Comey could be begging for appointment of a special prosecutor. It doesn’t even come down to “fair,” then. It has to do with reality, and the reality was that Trump ought to have expected that he’s done things to increase the odds of such an investigation. I cannot believe he made those choices in ignorance, even if he did think he’d beat the odds.