Who could have guessed it? Amid a week of daily revelations detailing the tangled web of connections between Donald Trump's associates and Russian operatives, Trump used the world stage at the United Nations to profess his undying dedication to U.S. sovereignty.
“I will always put America first," he told attendees during his speech. “As long as I hold this office, I will defend America’s interest above all else."
How quaint.
While Trump was planting his flag of independence at the New York gathering, back in Washington White House aides have been frantically trying to fulfill investigators' requests for what appear to be reams of records detailing Trump's peculiar devotion to his bilateral relations with Russia.
In particular, Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort emerged as a central link between the Trump camp and Russia operatives. Manafort, who was deeply in debt to a Russian oligarch and close ally of President Vladimir Putin, Oleg Deripaska, reportedly offered to brief him on the election just two weeks before Trump accepted the GOP nomination in 2016. But the linchpin to this prong of the collusion probe could be Manafort's query on how his high-profile role in the Trump campaign might be used to benefit him financially.
In one April exchange days after Trump named Manafort as a campaign strategist, Manafort referred to his positive press and growing reputation and asked, “How do we use to get whole?”
“How do we use to get whole?”
That's likely the link—the nexus—between Trump associates offering something to Russian operatives in exchange for something back: the proverbial quid pro quo. And while it doesn't prove that exchange took place, it certainly demonstrates the intent, not to mention that Manafort reportedly used his campaign email during the correspondence.
Looking back, Manafort's March-to-August reign over the campaign proved to be a very frenetic time in regard to Russia. Here's a quick snapshot:
April 27: Trump delivers a Russian-friendly foreign policy speech at the Mayflower hotel; Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak attends, as does Trump foreign policy adviser Jeff Sessions.
June 7: Trump promises to give a "major speech" the following week "discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons."
June 9: Trump Tower meeting where Don Jr., Kushner, and Manafort solicit "dirt" on Hillary Clinton from a Kremlin-linked lawyer.
July 7: Manafort offers to brief Putin ally/Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
July 12: Trump's team quietly changes GOP platform to Russian-friendly position on Ukraine.
July 22: First batch of 20,000 DNC hacked emails are released, just in time to disrupt the opening days of the Democratic National Convention.
July 27: Trump holds his last press conference of the year and implores Russia, if they're "listening," to hack and release 30,000 of Clinton's emails. "They probably have them," he says.
This all took place right around the time that former CIA Director John Brennan later told investigators he had become so alarmed by the number of contacts between Trump associates and the Russians that he alerted the FBI. Now we find out that, shortly after Manafort’s August departure from the campaign, the FBI re-upped a FISA warrant to tail him that extended into the early part of this year.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Team Trump appears ready to cut Manafort loose. Trump’s lawyer Ty Cobb told Bloomberg News reporter Margaret Talev it would be "truly shocking" if Manafort had tried "to monetize his relationship with the president," while Manafort's former campaign rival Corey Lewandowski hoped that if the allegation proved true of Manafort or anyone else, "they go to jail for the rest of their lives.”
Vice President Pence was more subtle but made sure to distance himself from what others may or may not have done during the campaign.
Here’s what a former federal prosecutor thinks of that response...
By Friday, Trump was assuring us that the thousands of Russian ads Facebook is turning over to Mueller's team are all a "hoax," which brings us full circle from the collusion angle of the Russia story back to the obstruction angle where we began. Investigators have asked the White House for records documenting everything from the ousting of both former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former FBI director James Comey to Trump's Oval Office confab with Russian officials and his hand in crafting the false statement about Don Jr.'s Trump Tower meeting.
If there’s a hoax to be had amid this week’s boatload of damning Russia developments, it appears to be Trump’s supposed commitment to U.S. sovereignty and putting “America first.”