Under cloud
The cloud of Moscow continues to hover over the administration of United States President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, the US Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, and called accusations that the Trump campaign had colluded with the Kremlin during the US Presidential elections a "detestable lie". Sessions' testimony comes just days after former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey told the committee that the Russia links were undeniable. Comey also believed he had been sacked because of the FBI's investigation into Moscow's meddling in last year's Presidential election. Despite putting up a brave front, Sessions refused to answer a whole host of questions, including one on whether he spoke privately to US President Donald Trump about the inquiry.
Sessions was also evasive about his interactions with Comey, who reported directly to him while he was FBI director. The appointment of the former FBI Director Robert Mueller as the special counsel to investigations into the Trump campaign's collusion with the Russians has upped the ante on the embattled President. What makes the appointment of Mueller a significant threat to the Trump administration is that the President has found himself mired in allegations of obstructing justice. The issue will be whether the President has obstructed justice first by asking the former FBI Director James Comey to let his former national security advisor Michael Flynn off the hook for his alleged ties with Moscow. After Comey had declined Trump's request, he was fired. Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner is also in the crosshairs of investigators.
If the FBI investigation indeed finds concrete proof that the Trump campaign had coordinated with Moscow, it would end up as a kind of scandal that could render the US President vulnerable to impeachment. Herein lies the catch. There is yet no concrete proof to definitively suggest that the Trump campaign team, aided and abetted by the Moscow, undermined the US Presidential elections.
