The case Russiagate it gets more and more insidious for Donald Trump. The Reuters agency writes today that in at least 18 between phone calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 White House race, Michael Flynn (Trump's former top national security adviser) has had dealings with Russian government officials, including Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.
The communications focus on the improvement of economic relations between the US and Russia, which deteriorated after the sanctions imposed on Moscow, on cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and on the containment of China, according to sources.
These contacts, which were not known until now, are part of the material under FBI scrutiny and congressional investigators who are trying to shed light on the alleged Russian interference in the American electoral campaign and on contacts between Trump's electoral team and Russia.
Reuters sources said they would have found no evidence of misconduct or collusion between the US campaign team and Russia in the communications reviewed so far. But the fact that the contacts have been disclosed could increase pressure on Trump and its aides to provide the FBI and Congress with a comprehensive account of dealings with Russian and other Kremlin-related officials during and immediately following the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, the State Department has appointed, unbeknownst to the president himself, a special prosecutor in charge of investigating alleged interference by Russia in the presidential elections. The super inspector is Robert Mueller, head of the FBI between 2001 and 2013, just before James Comey, fired in recent days by Trump.
Mueller, appreciated by both Democrats and Republicans, will have absolute powers and cannot be removed from office. At the end of his investigation he will report to Congress, who will then decide if there are any the extremes to impeach the president. For his part, Trump flaunts security: "I will never back down".
In the meantime, a shocking sentence uttered in June 2016, therefore before the elections and in the midst of the electoral campaign by Kevin McCarthy, Republican leader in the House, hit the front page of the international newspapers: “I think Putin pays Trump”, the conservative deputy would have said according to reports from the Washington Post. A statement made during a conversation on Capitol Hill with some Republican parliamentarians and of which there is a recording heard and verified by the capital's newspaper.
