The Trump-China scandal is predicated on a mountain of evidence that Trump yet again gave preferential treatment—contrary to the interests of the US—to a hostile foreign leader from whom he sought both financial benefits (trademarks and rent) and a political benefit (Biden dirt).
Beyond the ample evidence I've already tweeted about is the inescapable fact that, throughout January, US intelligence told Trump he was being lied to by Chinese president Xi Jinping about the seriousness of the virus outbreak, and Trump believed Xi Jinping over *his own people*.
If this congressional inquiry is to have any legitimacy whatsoever, it must delve deeply into the byzantine business interconnections between Trump and Beijing and trace how those personal Trump family interests coincided in time with major policy decisions—including on COVID-19.
To be clear, I've no theory about what *specific* influence or events might have, in the balance, unfolded between Trump and Beijing with respect to the outbreak. There's evidence of clandestine dealings generally—from major media—and my only ask is that they be investigated now.
IOW, there's no doubt Trump benefits financially from dealings with the Chinese. There's no doubt he received Biden dirt from Beijing after demanding it. There's no doubt China wants leverage on him and he says he has leverage on them. There's no doubt he trusts Xi over US intel.
There's no doubt he's alternately hidden and lied about his dealings with the Chinese. There's no doubt he ignored intelligence which—had he accepted it—would have affected trade negotiations in the trade war he started (he said) to gain leverage over the Chinese. And much more.
For all that, I've nothing invested in claiming to know precisely what occurred behind the scenes when I don't know. I'm okay with having only data-points but not a full narrative if I know—as an attorney and former criminal investigator—that a matter is being fully investigated.
So when I say that the Trump-China scandal needs to be investigated by Congress, I don't say it facetiously or disingenuously, under the assumption that a full and fair investigation including both criminal and counterintelligence components will lead to some pre-selected result.
The reason the far right has been overtaken by conspiracy theorists is that it now comprises in large part those who don't believe in facts, evidence, investigation, sourcing, corroboration, or anything else that produces truth. They have an opinion and just assume it to be fact.
Because of my training in law and investigations, *my* analysis is simply: is there enough evidence to initiate a criminal and counterintelligence probe? If yes, I call for one and—assuming it is full and fair and transparent and rigorous—am wholly at peace with wherever it goes.
With Mueller, my objection—that of many attorneys—was threefold: the counterintelligence piece was hidden from us; Mueller investigated virtually none of the allegations against Trump, as he deemed them outside his scope; and as a lawyer I believe he got his legal analyses wrong.
So I'm neither a conspiracy theorist nor someone interested in conspiracy theories. I feel sickened by both. What I am is an attorney and former investigator who believes full and fair investigations should be opened—even on the powerful!—when the evidence is there to support it.
Anyone who says there's insufficient evidence to initiate criminal and counterintelligence investigations involving Trump's clandestine dealings with China on Biden, ZTE, the Trump family's Chinese trademarks, COVID-19, Trump Tower and Trump's trade war doesn't know the evidence.
PS/ One fair question is, why do I call it a "scandal" when we don't have a final report yet? The answer: the evidence of bribery that rises to and exceeds the level of "reasonable suspicion" for purposes of a federal probe is substantial enough to qualify as a scandal *already*.
ADDITIONAL READING/ Here's my thread on the Trump-China scandal, which I hope you'll retweet in its own right—as even this brief curation of the evidence (a fraction of what exists, with the whole requiring a probe) includes 10+ major-media investigations.
