More Smoking Guns

Both The Washington Post and The New York Times broke several important stories over the last few days about a previously unpublicized complex business deal between Donald Trump and key Russian figures well known to be linked to Vladimir Putin that was negotiated during the American presidential campaign.

First, The Post broke the story (link here) about how a top person in Trump's organization was in contact with a Putin aide for approval of "Trump Tower Moscow."

That was followed by a story in The Times (link here) about how a Trump associate promised to help broker the Putin/Trump deal so that it would get the latter elected. This happened at the exact time that Trump insisted in multiple campaign appearances he had no dealings with anyone in Russia in many years.

The Post then broke another story about the give-and-take between the Trump and Putin camps on the tower deal (link here). This negotiation would explain why Trump constantly praised Putin throughout the campaign and still does so to this day -- he was trying to get his tower approved.

Conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin then wrote an excellent column at The Post (link here) asking the question "What more proof of a secret Russian connection do we need?" Hopefully Robert Mueller's criminal investigation into Trump, his campaign, and business dealings is asking this exact same question right now.

And Republicans on Capitol Hill need to ask this question, too. It's long past time to put country before party.