It should now be clear to everyone, including Trump supporters in Congress and throughout the Republican party and even Fox news, that Donald Trump has something important to hide.

If he was confident that there was nothing that the FBI could discover, why not let FBI Director Comey go on with his wild goose chase?   If he wanted to change the leadership at the FBI, why not do it in an orderly manner, with a solid justification?

Instead, Trump fired Comey as dramatically and insultingly as possible, with no warning or preparation to the Bureau or most of the White House Staff.   Moreover, his reasoning was so poorly contrived that the person who was first offered as the official responsible for the decision — Deputy Attorney General Robert Rosenstein — threatened to quit over being fingered as the responsible party. 

The lie that Comey was fired for his mishandling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails was so embarrassingly and obviously wrong that most news organizations and commentators dismissed it out of hand.  So one has to ask — why would Trump lie so baldly about a major action, if not to cover-up the real reason that he dared not say out loud?  That is, that Comey was fired because he was closing in on the dangerous truth about relations between Trump’s staff and Russian intelligence during and after the election campaign.

We know that Trump and his surrogates have constantly downplayed the Russian interference in the U.S. election that U.S. intelligence services all agreed did take place.  We know that Michael Flynn lied to everyone, including Vice-President Mike Pence, about the substance of his meetings with the Russian ambassador.  We know that Attorney General Jeff Sessions misled a Congressional Committee — and possibly lied under oath — about his meetings with Russian ambassador.

Why would so many people take actions that threaten to undermine their own careers if simply speaking the truth would have been harmless, which would be the case if — as Trump insists — there is nothing there?  Firing Comey, and the explanation for that firing, simply continue a consistent pattern of hiding, dissembling, misleading, and lying about relations between the Trump team and Russian intelligence that has been going on since the election.

Let us assume that Trump knew nothing about attempts by the Russians to aid his election.  Even so it now seems crystal clear that Mike Flynn had discussions with Russia about removing Ukraine-related sanctions if Trump was elected, and that such actions were offered in connection with knowledge that Russia desired this and would assist by using its cyberwarfare to undermine Hilary Clinton.    If this was not the case, why would Flynn have lied to everyone about having one such conversation after the election?  Why would Flynn be seeking immunity?  Why would Acting AG Sally Yates have felt it necessary to personally inform the White House that Flynn’s lies opened a path for the National Security Advisor to be blackmailed by Russia?

At the very least, we know that Flynn lied about his conversations with the Russian ambassador, and that the White House knew this for over two weeks and did not fire him.  What we do not know is why Flynn lied, and why his lies were tolerated by the White House after being detailed by the acting AG.

Mike Flynn may be a patriot, who misguidedly believed that working closely with the Russians, and promising them relief from sanctions, would be the best way to combat radical Islamist terror.  After all, Ronald Reagan’s staff was persuaded that working with the Islamic Republic of Iran to smuggle weapons was the best way to combat communism in Central America.  But in both cases, the actions were criminal.    In Flynn’s case, if he actually promised sanctions relief as a return on help in getting his boss elected, that would be treason.  And if Trump became aware of this, and did not fire Flynn immediately, and in fact has denied anything like this happened, then he is engaged in abetting treason and obstructing the investigation into it.

No doubt, Trump wants all of this to go away, which is why he fired an FBI Director who insisted on pursuing it.  It seems almost certain that while Trump and his team thought they were just engaging in a little smart diplomacy to improve relations with Russia, create a coalition that would destroy terrorism, and assist Trump’s election over Clinton all at one go, they in fact were engaging in treasonous collusion with an enemy of the the United States.  They now (and only now) seem to realize this and are taking whatever measures are necessary to prevent this from becoming known.

There is really no other explanation for the pattern of behavior we have seen from Trump, Flynn, Sessions, and others.  They have something to hide, it is big, and they need to keep it hidden.

Yet the truth will out.  It will eventually be documented that Trump’s staff had continuous contacts with Russian intelligence during the campaign, that the Russian hacking and Wikileaks and other cyberactions designed to undermine Clinton were at the least discussed, and perhaps even coordinated, with Trump staff, and that the Trump team sought to hide such contacts.   It will almost certainly be shown that Russia’s goal in working with the Trump team was not only to deny Clinton the presidency, but also to obtain relief from U.S. sanctions, and that Trump’s team — particularly Mike Flynn — had discussions with Russia of this topic prior to and after the election.  Someone will, at some point, admit that Trump’s team’s discussions suggested that if Trump won, Trump would be silent about the Russian role in his victory, but shift relations in a positive direction and seek to end the sanctions.

All of this is treason, and the cover-up of these actions is support of treason.  Eventually all this will come out, Trump will be forced out of office by one means or another, and he will go down in history as the most humiliated and disastrous, the worst-qualified and most bumbling, President in American history.  The longer this goes on, the worse the cover-up will be,  and the more severe the verdict of history on everyone involved. Trump should save himself the grief and simply resign now.