Twitter tirades show Trump is afraid of the truth

Donald Trump is on a Twitter rampage yet again.

The recent FBI raid of the president’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen; last week’s release of the James Comey memos that memorialize the bizarre interactions he had with the president; the release of Comey’s book; and the just-announced Democratic National Committee (DNC) lawsuit alleging conspiracy between the Trump campaign, Russia and Wikileaks, all show that we’re closing in on the truth — and Trump is scared.

Trump’s Twitter tirade betrays a terrified president out of control, lashing out at whomever he deems disloyal or central to the Mueller investigation he is deathly afraid will bring him down.

When all is said and done, the issue is simple: Trump is afraid of the truth.

Whatever the president’s motives, however, we cannot lose sight of the fact that the American people need to know the facts. They deserve the truth. They need to know what happened when Russia subverted our country and our democracy, and they need to know that their leaders are focused on making sure it never happens again.

They also need to know to what degree their president was involved.

Kim Strassel of the WSJ just said, after reviewing the dumb Comey Memos, “you got to ask, what was the purpose of the Special Counsel? There’s no there there.” Dan Henninger of the WSJ said Memos would show that this would be one of the weakest obstruction cases ever brought!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2018

So far, the only thing the country is getting from the Oval Office is an unhinged president more interested in Twitter battles and finding ways to thwart the special counsel’s investigation, including threats of firing those in charge, than in getting to the truth of how Russia attacked us, ensuring they pay for it and protecting the country from a repeat attack.

Everyone on both sides of the aisle is wondering what Trump is so afraid of. If he is innocent, why does he act like he has something to hide?

Perhaps he does. There is no other way Trump’s behavior makes any sense. From the moment Trump refused to turn over his tax returns during the campaign, after numerous occasions when he stated that he would, it proved he had something to hide.

Everything he has done since then proves that something may very well be damning. Is he beholden to the Russians on past business deals? Is he indebted to Putin or to Russian oligarchs in any way?

We certainly don’t know if Mueller will actually find something criminal in his current investigation surrounding the Russian meddling, collusion with the Trump campaign and the possible obstruction of justice or intent to obstruct justice.

A complete Witch Hunt!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2018

But at the pace we are going, we do know that the closer Mueller gets to the truth, the more afraid the president acts.

The Comey memos don’t prove collusion. They don’t prove outright obstruction of justice. They don’t prove Mueller’s case. They were never supposed to.

While the president is busy gleefully and desperately pointing out that Comey’s memos only prove that Comey leaked classified information, let’s remember these memos only recount the conversations Comey had with Trump that were so outside of protocol that Comey felt compelled to make a written record of them.

They document the interactions Comey had with the president prior to his firing, which led to the appointment of the special counsel.

So while the memos do not make Mueller’s case for him, they do outline a president intent on:

• getting Comey to go easy on Michael Flynn;
• convincing Comey that nothing untoward happened in Moscow with prostitutes;
• trying to get Comey to tell him whether Trump was a target of the investigation; and
• trying to prove to Comey that he did nothing wrong when all the while it was the president’s odd behavior that must have led Comey to believe it is possible the Russians have something on Trump.

We need to keep focused on the truth, which Trump is not at all interested in. That disinterest in the truth is what makes him look and act so guilty.

“GOP Lawmakers asking Sessions to Investigate Comey and Hillary Clinton.” @FoxNews Good luck with that request!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2018

The truth is what special counsel Mueller is after. The truth is what the Southern District of New York was after when it raided the home of Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. The truth is also what the DNC is after with the lawsuit it filed on Friday.

It is a smart move because a civil suit has a lower bar than a criminal probe. It has nothing to do with the Mueller case, so interfering in that important ongoing investigation is not an issue. Discovery will ensure the truth continues to come out.

Congressional Republicans have ended their flimsy investigations without ever even trying to get to the truth of what Russia did for fear of finding out the truth about what Trump and his campaign did. But Trump cannot end this lawsuit with political pressure. He cannot fire the DNC, and all of their findings can be made public.

As much as President Trump is afraid of it, the truth will come out one way or another. No matter how deranged Trump gets on Twitter, the truth will come out. Maybe that is why Trump is so afraid.

It may be that he knows that under these circumstances, and with what he has done, the truth will not set him free. It may be just the opposite.

Maria Cardona is a principal at the Dewey Square Group, a Democratic strategist and a CNN/CNN Español political commentator. Follow her on Twitter @MariaTCardona.