Mueller is doing right by "following the money"

Ann echo opinion by Carl Hisiro, a retired attorney, and an occasional PennLive Opinion contributor. He writes from Susquehanna Township in Pennsylvania.

Watching the legal travails surrounding Donald Trump and his inner circle over the past week in the ongoing investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller over Russian tampering in the 2016 election, it’s tough not to be reminded of the Watergate scandal and the last days of President Richard Nixon’s White House.

In the past few days alone, we’ve seen former Trump fixer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea; the collapse of a plea agreement between Mueller and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and Tuesday’s release of a heavily redacted sentencing memo suggesting former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn cooperated extensively with Mueller’s office to avoid jail time for lying to Congress.

History reminds us that Nixon’s ultimate downfall began when then White House Counsel John Dean decided to testify to Congress about his knowledge of the Watergate break-in and the subsequent cover-up.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that Trump’s fate is tied to Cohen’s decision to cooperate not only with Mueller’s ongoing investigation, but with three other law enforcement agencies, by providing some 70 hours of testimony. Based on news reports, it appears that Flynn’s cooperation could be of similar impact.

Before the election, I wrote that Trump would be the most conflicted president ever elected, and that these conflicts could threaten our national security. I remain as convinced as ever that is the case.

My position has only been reinforced by allegations that Trump continued to pursue efforts to build a new property in Russia well into the 2016 campaign.

We’ve since learned that that the Trump Organization had offered Russian leader Vladimir Putin a $50 million Penthouse in the Trump Tower as part of a kickback to get the deal approved by the dictator. And while all of this was going on, Trump repeatedly denied on the campaign trail that he had “any business dealings with Russia.”

In sum, while Trump was campaigning for president in 2016, he was secretly interacting with a hostile foreign government to close on perhaps Trump’s largest business transaction ever.

The American public was entitled to know about this enormous conflict of interest, but were denied the truth before the election by Trump’s repeated denials on the subject.

With Trump, Mueller is doing the right thing by “following the money” to connect the dots on Russia. With Trump everything is about the money.

The Trump Organization is a family business where Trump micromanages everything. It is hard to imagine anything happening within the company, especially meetings with top Russian officials right under Trump’s nose in his NYC Trump Tower, that he didn’t know about at the time it occurred.

The other fascinating fact that is hard to ignore is how Trump often acts more like a Mafia boss instead of the chief law enforcement officer of the country when he reacts to any negative news involving the Mueller investigation.

We saw it with Manafort when Trump praised Manafort for not cracking when he first refused to cooperate with Mueller and instead went to trial. Now, we see it again when Trump last week called Cohen “a weak person” when Cohen decided to cooperate fully with Mueller’s probe and his concurrent praise of Trump insider Roger Stone for his refusal to cooperate with Mueller.

The larger question is whether Trump’s base will stick with him as these revelations continue to mount; as Mueller releases his final report, and as the 2020 campaign draws ever nearer.

Like Nixon more than 40 years ago, Trump has repeatedly taken steps to interfere or otherwise obstruct ongoing. That’s included his purges at the Justice Department.

History is definitely repeating itself as we slowly grind to the finish line. However, there is one difference between now and the Watergate scandal. What Trump is being accused of relating to Russia and his other business dealings, if proven true, makes Nixon look like a nickel and dime crook by comparison.