Is whistleblower report Trump's Watergate moment?

As if this crooked business that is the Trump presidency couldn’t get any “worse,” a slightly redacted version of the whistleblower report revealed that Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr at the very least appear to have been (and perhaps continue to be) involved in a wide-ranging conspiracy to collude with a foreign government for Trump’s re-election purposes. The whistleblower—a CIA officer tasked to the White House as a liaison—expressed concern that the administration’s actions undermined efforts to deter foreign players from interfering with U.S. elections. Trump “requested” that Ukrainian officials cooperate with Giuliani and Barr not just to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, but to turn over DNC server data they allegedly have in order to supposedly uncover Russian interference in the 2016 election—an obvious cover story, since the Trump administration has been busy accusing Hillary Clinton and the DNC of “colluding” with the Ukrainians against Trump. 

It is noted that it was the Ukrainian government that first reported the conversation between Trump and newly-elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensnky that is currently under scrutiny, stating that it was meant as a step to “improve” relations between the two countries; this apparently meant  to  conduct the investigations that Trump was seeking, which according even to the clearly “redacted” White House version of the conversation, obviously meant investigations into the person who at the present time is Trump’s principle political rival in the 2020 election. Trump had just days before suspended previously-approved aid to the Ukraine, so even if not explicitly stated in the Trump version of the conversation, Zelensky could not have been unmindful of the not-so-subtle pressure to “cooperate.” In fact, the aid was only recently released when news of the whistleblower complaint first surfaced; apparently up to that point Trump and his stooges were not receiving the “cooperation” they were expecting—especially since there was apparently nothing to investigate.  

The whistleblower noted that about a dozen people were present during the conversation, all of whom had assumed that it was going to be a “routine” exchange of pleasantries, before it went off the rails. When White House lawyers realized the gravity of Trump’s actions, an effort was made to “lock down” all records of the call, “especially the official word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced—as was customary—by the White House Situation Room” inside a computer normally relegated for sensitive security data.  That begs the question: How many similar communications that are particularly “sensitive” to Trump—rather than that relating to national security—are in “lock down” mode? The whistleblower noted that he had been told that this “was not the first time” that this had occurred—suggesting that evidence of other crimes were being illegally concealed there from public view.

While the former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko had suggested that Joe and Hunter Biden may have been involved in potentially corrupt activities along with other Ukrainian officials, and that the then U.S. ambassador was working to undermine Trump in the Ukraine, he would later “walk back” his claims; the whistleblower notes that it appears that Lutsenko’s charges were politically motivated, aimed principally at his political rivals in order to harm them. 

The whistleblower also reported that the Ukrainian government was experiencing “confusion” over mixed messages from the U.S. government. On one hand, the Trump administration was publicly claiming to be seeking “normal” relations without seeking any special “favors” in return; but behind the scenes, Giuliani and Barr were pressuring the Ukrainians to “cooperate” with the Trump administration in its efforts to insure Trump’s re-election. Zelensky was told that Trump would refuse to  “play ball” with him unless he cooperated; it was just a few weeks after being warned this that Trump suspended the previously-approved aid to the Ukraine, an obvious attempt to “subtly” pressure Zelensky. 

The attempt to damage who Trump sees as his main obstacle to re-election is clear enough, and rises to the level of Watergate. But even more intriguing is the revelation that other similarly compromising “conversations” are being concealed in that secret electronic hideaway. Speaking of Watergate, when I first read about this I immediately thought to myself that this was the equivalent of the infamous Nixon tapes, when Richard Nixon had secretly “bugged” his offices to record for posterity White House communications. Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox obtained a subpoena for the release of the tapes, but he was personally fired by Nixon along with the Attorney General Elliot Richardson (who had replaced the disgraced John Mitchell) and his deputy after they had refused to fire Cox over the matter. Public outrage was such that Nixon was obliged to select another special prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, who was able to force Nixon to release the tapes; much of it revealed a president who was paranoid and a bigot, but it also revealed him to be actively involved in the Watergate break-in cover-up. The infamous missing 18-minutes—Nixon’s personal secretary famously demonstrated how her foot “accidentally” pushed the “erase” button—likely was a conversation directing the cover-up. It would be less than two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release the tapes that he would resign the presidency.  

Everyone knows that Trump is a blowhard, and the assumption is that he shoots his mouth off inappropriately because he is just a child who doesn’t know any better. He is just like any average Joe Blow who is at bottom “harmless” and what he says is “inconsequential.” Unfortunately, “Joe Blow” is not president, Trump is. It is one thing to pop-off stupidly; it is quite another thing to pressure foreign governments, and collude with foreign governments, to undermine democracy in this country. But what else is in “lock down” mode, that is too “sensitive” to be revealed? Evidence of a conspiracy to obstruct the Mueller investigation? Remember that Trump’s first reaction to it was that his presidency was “over.” Why did he think that? What about the motivations of Trump on a wide-range of policy initiatives that may have included unethical and illegal actions? What about questionable conversations he may have had with Russia and North Korea that compromised U.S. interests? Who knows what we might discover.

There is a difference between then and now, however. In the days of Watergate, the U.S. Supreme Court was ideologically structured in such a way that ruthless partisanship from the right did not get in the way of the enforcement of the law and respect for the Constitution. But today’s Supreme Court is politically partisan, and has clearly been so since 2000, when the five conservative justices voted to stop the Florida recount and insure the installing of an illegitimate president. But not only is it unlikely that the present Supreme Court would approve the release of the “locked” documentation of wrongdoing, but it could use the excuse that it would be too arduous a task to separate the evidence of criminal activity from legitimate national security information; doubtless this is the reason why the evidence of this activity was placed in a “secure” location in the first place—clear evidence of obstruction and a conspiracy to elude the law. One wonders if any of those on the right of the Supreme Court are mindful of how such activities undermine the Constitution they claim to "respect."

Nevertheless, the revelation that the Trump administration is apparently actively engaged at the very least in the concealment of evidence of obstruction and conspiracy to collude with foreign governments against the national interest is there for all to ponder. It would be criminal to let it end there. Trump is accusing the whistleblower of being a "spy" and guilty of "treason." The reality is that those accusations  are far better suited to describe Trump's own activities.