The public now knows, despite FBI security briefings in mid-2016 that warned Trump the Russians were seeking to infiltrate his campaign and interfere in the election, the Trump campaign chose to ignore the warnings and continue to lie to congress and the FBI by insisting no such communications with Russian operatives were occurring. Consequently, amid all the rolling disclosures, the Comey firing and the recusals, special prosecutor Robert Mueller, a republican, was appointed to investigate the extent of collusion between the Trump organization and Russia. His findings to date have implicated nine trump associates with four indictments. At the center of this intrigue is an early 2016 GOP opposition research project that conscripted Fusion GPS to obtain campaign dirt on Donald Trump. The GOP and Fusion tasked the dossiers author, Christopher Steele with a very specific question: why is the Trump organization repeatedly seeking business dealings with a corrupt foreign adversary that most if not all legitimate investors have avoided? However, the dossier isn’t the basis of the investigations-it’s merely the first chapter that corroborates what nineteen US intelligence agencies already knew. The Trump organization is a criminal enterprise engaged in international money laundering, election meddling and now eighteen months later, obstruction of justice. For the last year, the public had a ringside seat to the banana-republic antics of congressional Republicans attempting to thwart the Mueller investigation. By discrediting the FBI, harassing Fusion GPS and demanding a criminal investigation of Christopher Steele the Republicans intent is to protect Trump and hasten the investigations. However, these scandalous acts also undermine our republic and underscores an uncomfortable truth. That democracy’s biggest threat is not the lawless, totalitarian, terrorist regimes of North Korea, Iran and Russia, but the Republican party itself.
