Where do we go now? Some thoughts by Josh Marshall

Where do we go now? Some thoughts

By Josh Marshall

So what is the fall out from the press conference?

Let me share a few thoughts.

I expect no resignations from top administration officials. I also expect to see little real change from Capitol Hill Republicans, at least for now. I’ve mentioned a few critical statements. But mild, contingent criticisms don’t really mean anything unless they are combined with specific actions. The Senate especially can do a lot to slow down and hobble a President. Until we see something like that, none of it matters. We’ve seen nothing like that so far.

I want to direct our attention again to this column last night from David Ignatius. There are signals, in the indictments, to Vladimir Putin and to President Trump. Federal law enforcement and the US intelligence community know a huge amount of information about this Russian operation. What more do they know? What more Russian operations have been compromised? What more does the FBI, CIA, NSA know about the actions of top Trump associates. It creates a specter of menace hanging over both. The timing of these indictments is no accident, three days before this summit. This is an independent source of action, another driver that I think goes beyond Robert Mueller. Who’s driving this?

Within the hour, the FBI announced it had arrested a woman named Maria Butina. You’ve heard of her before, though you may not remember her name. She essentially infiltrated the NRA. She had a pro-gun group in Russia (where guns really aren’t an issue like in the US). She is tied to a former top official in the Russian Central Bank, Alexander Torshin, who appears to be listed as an unnamed conspirator with Butina. She has been charged with being a Russian spy (unregistered foreign agent) trying to influence US politics. The NRA is the key organization here. They’ve been deep in with various Russians, building ties with Russian political groups. The DOJ is now saying they were penetrated by a Russian agent. This is a major escalation, a big problem for the NRA.

The best I can tell is that we’re likely to see escalating pressure from the investigations, with congressional Republicans still trapped in their complicity with the President, some possibly tough criticisms but also signaling no intention to take any actions the President would need to respond to.

Where my mind is is whether there are other forces in the US government, folks I believe Ignatius was alluding to, escalating the pressure on the President.