THE TRUMP administration has claimed that the independent probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on the alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is ending because of lack of evidence.
However, the fact is: the case has moved forward with the indictment of Trump’s former top campaign aides and his one-time foreign policy adviser pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his Kremlin-related contacts.
President Donald Trump downplayed the significance of this development and his administration said this has nothing to do with the campaign and proves nothing about its alleged conspiracy with Russia to influence the elections by hurting Hillary Clinton’s chances in order for Trump to win.
Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and the latter’s business associate, Rick Gates, pleaded not guilty to charges against them which include money laundering.
Trump used Twitter to call this development “Fake News,” stating that according to Manafort’s lawyer, there is no collusion and that what was being charged against his former campaign chief took place before he joined his campaign.
However, according to BBC News, the indictment of the Mueller investigation alleges that Manafort and Gates conspired on financial crimes from 2006-2017, which covers the period over the summer when Manafort played the important role as campaign manager of the Trump campaign.
Trump also lambasted the credibility of George Papadopoulos through Twitter, calling him a “liar” and a “low-level volunteer” when in the past he would describe him as an “excellent guy” when he served as his campaign’s foreign policy adviser.
BBC News reported further that Papadopoulos was in a photo that Trump tweeted of himself in March of 2016 hosting a national security meeting with his foreign policy team.
According to NBC News, court documents in the case revealed that based on evidence gathered by the Mueller investigation, the Trump campaign officials were aware that Papadopoulos was trying to set up a meeting between Trump and the Russians, with one of them being Manafort, who wrote a key email about what Papadopoulos was trying to arrange.
The Manafort email stated in the court documents stated, “We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal”.
As NBC News reported, the court documents revealed how Papadopoulos lied when questioned by the FBI regarding communications with foreign nationals with ties to the Russian government who were seeking to establish a relationship with at least one Trump campaign officials, offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.
THEREFORE, for the Trump and his administration to continue to say the charges against the Trump campaign is a witch hunt and that the Mueller investigation is folding for lack of evidence is FAKE NEWS.
Mueller will weigh how this and the other evidence regarding the communications and ties of other Trumpan campaign members with Russia tell the whole and factual story.
We, the American people, deserve to know no less than the truth.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
