Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

EDITORIAL:

If Trump is innocent, he should welcome investigation

Let’s say you’ve been falsely accused of impropriety.

The accusations are explosive. They could ruin your career, destroy your business, even land you in prison.

But you contend they’re completely baseless — an attempt to smear you, lodged by someone hostile.

What do you do, as a totally innocent person?

Chances are, it would be 180 degrees from the way President Donald Trump is handling accusations that his campaign team colluded with the Kremlin during the 2016 election.

Instead of demanding an investigation that would clear his name — the path you’d think he’d take if he’s truly just the target of a partisan witch hunt — Trump has chosen to shoot the messenger, try to deflect attention, claim he is being victimized and in essence say, “Move on, folks, nothing to see here.”

The most recent example came last week when he tweeted about the House Intelligence Committee’s probe.

“Why isn’t the House Intelligence Committee looking into the Bill & Hillary deal that allowed big Uranium to go to Russia, Russian speech ...” read one tweet, followed nine minutes later by one reading “... money to Bill, the Hillary Russian ‘reset,’ praise of Russia by Hillary, or Podesta Russian Company. Trump Russia story is a hoax. #MAGA!”

No need to fact-check everything wrong with those tweets here, but suffice it to say they contain massive distortions of the truth. The “Bill & Hillary deal,” for example, occurred in 2010, when Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, joined eight other federal agency leaders to approve Russia’s purchase of a controlling stake in Uranium One. It was hardly some secret activity like Trump’s team is accused of perpetrating.

And as far as Trump-Russia being a hoax, that’s preposterous. There’s significant evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 election: former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s connections with pro-Russia politicians and former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s ouster after lying about discussions with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.

Coming in behind Trump’s tweets, White House press secretary Sean Spicer declared there was no connection between Trump and the Kremlin and that “every single person who’s been briefed on this situation with respect to the situation with Russia — Republican, Democrat, Obama appointee, career — have come away with the same conclusion.”

That would be news to the FBI and two congressional committees that are investigating the possibility of collusion.

“This one is one of the biggest investigations the Hill has seen in my time here,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said. The committee asked 20 people to appear at hearings beginning March 30.

Nothing to see here? Yeah, right, and there was no need to look into that seemingly random burglary at the Watergate office complex back in the 1970s, either.

But Spicer’s assault on reality didn’t end with his claim about the allegations being written off. He went a step further by mocking those who are calling for further investigation.

“If the president put Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that’s a Russian connection,” Spicer said.

If there’s really nothing to the allegations, there’s one simple way for Trump and his gang to make them go away. That’s to say three words to their accusers — bring it on — and request an independent investigation that will clear them.

As it is, there’s smoke all over the place on Trump’s connections to the Russian government, and Trump’s actions are only creating more of it.

Those who are looking for the fire are doing exactly the right thing.

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