Editor’s note: This commentary is by Jon Glascoe, of Randolph, who is a screenwriter, a filmmaker and a Democrat.
[W]hat I hate most about this nightmare is that Trump lies so often, that he screws up so frequently, that the corruption of his entire administration is so blatant, that we never pause on a single scandal and say, wait, we need to stop the presses for this one. We need to take a close and immediate look — at this one. Trump, who is almost certainly guilty of conspiracy, bank fraud, tax evasion and violations of the emoluments clause, is definitely guilty of obstruction of justice, a felony. Here’s how we know that.
Last week Trump tweeted that he was aware at the time that Flynn had lied to the FBI about his communications with Sergei Kisilyak. He lists that as one of the two reasons he fired him as national security adviser. With growing certainty we are finding out that Flynn was dispatched to assure the Russians that in exchange for their role in putting Trump in the White House, the incoming administration would ease the sanctions imposed by Obama for meddling in our democracy. Quid pro quo.
Did Trump do the dispatching? Probably, but it doesn’t matter. He knew that Flynn lied to the FBI. Who told Flynn to lie? We can guess, but that also doesn’t matter. What does matter is the timetable. Flynn lied, Trump admits he knew it and then Trump asked (instructed) FBI Director James Comey to back off of the Flynn investigation. Comey said no and was subsequently fired himself.
For good measure, the president then went on television and bragged to Lester Holt that he fired Comey because of the Russian investigation. I’m sure special counselor Robert Mueller is building other cases in secret, but this is clear, factual and admitted evidence that the president obstructed justice, and it gets buried by whatever the new thing is, in this case, the middle-of-the-night passage of a tax plan that 72 percent of the country (and 0 percent of the donor class) hates.
Somewhere around immediately someone must have told Trump that he just more or less admitted to a federal crime. So the “think tank” (I use that term loosely) sprang into action, putting forth the most obvious lie in a sea of obvious lies. Suddenly, it wasn’t Trump who wrote that tweet at all. It was some lawyer named John Dowd. And they actually believe we are stupid enough, gullible enough, or indifferent enough to believe that out of the thousands of tweets Trump has spewed upon us, only this one — only the one where he confesses to a felony — was miraculously written by someone else. I’m sure Trump does that all the time. Here, everybody. Here’s access to my Twitter account. Tweet all you want in my name. No need even to show them to me! And then they trot out good ole Kellyann to lie about Dowd’s lie.
Here’s an idea, Congress. Here’s an idea, judiciary committee. Make yourselves useful for once. Your existence is a joke, since your only interest is to vote along party lines regardless of the subject or the evidence, but this hearing would be simple. Two questions and then you can break for lunch, or massages, or whatever. Put Dowd under oath and ask him if he wrote that tweet. If by some miracle of incompetence the answer is yes, then ask him if it was approved by the man in whose name in was written. If Dowd somehow testifies that the president neither wrote nor saw an incredibly important tweet written in his name, immediately bring charges against Dowd for lying to Congress — a felony, easily proven, and for which he will be disbarred.
And if the answer is that Trump indeed did write or approve the tweet, immediately recommend articles of impeachment for obstruction of justice. You will be doing so anyway, I suspect, when Meuller’s investigation is complete, but how about getting out in front of this one, House members. We may then forgive you when your names come up for re-election.
