Trump pressed to confront Putin after Mueller’s indictments

Bloomberg

Whatever Donald Trump had hoped to get out of his summit with Vladimir Putin, Robert Mueller changed the game.
The US president’s goals for the meeting had always been unclear. But now Trump is under pressure — including from several members of Congress from his own party — to finally confront Putin once and for all over trying to sabotage the election that put Trump in the White House.
Democrats called on him to scrap the summit in protest. That’s not happening, the White House said. And there’s no sign that Trump will demand that Putin turn over the 12 Russian intelligence officials the special counsel indicted — and they likely will never stand trial.
But Monday’s meeting in Helsinki has become a pivotal test of Trump’s strength and will to defend election integrity — something he hasn’t done so far.
“It will be somewhat more difficult for him to simply go through the motions,” said Daniel Fried, who served as assistant secretary of state for Europe under President George W. Bush. “The point is to send Putin a very clear message: Stay out of our elections.”

‘Extensive Plot’
Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said the indictments add to evidence confirming an “extensive plot” by the Kremlin to sow discord among American voters, attack the 2016 election, and undermine faith in democracy.
“President Trump must be willing to confront Putin from a position of strength and demonstrate that there will be a serious price to pay for his ongoing aggression towards the US and democracies around the world,” McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, said. “If President Trump is not prepared to hold Putin accountable, the summit in Helsinki should not move forward.”
Trump focussed his ire not on Putin but his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, in a series of tweets from his Turnberry golf club in Scotland.
“The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration,” Trump wrote. “Why didn’t they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?”
In a subsequent tweet, Trump questioned why the FBI didn’t take possession of the Democratic National Committee server that was hacked by the Russians, and appeared to insinuate that a unsubstantiated and unexplained conspiracy involving the “Deep State”.
Former FBI director James Comey said last year Democrats had opted to give the server to a third party that shared its analysis with the FBI, rather than turning it over directly to the government.
The tweets followed remarks at a press conference where Trump belittled the idea of challenging the Russian president over election interference during a press conference just before the
criminal charges were announced, though Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had warned Trump earlier in the week the indictments were coming.
“I will absolutely, firmly ask the question” to Putin, Trump said at a news conference with UK PM Theresa May at Chequers. But he suggested there was little point to the exercise.
“I don’t think you’ll have any ‘Gee, I did it, I did it, you got me,”’ Trump said. Referring to a TV courtroom drama of the 1950s and 1960s that often featured a dramatic, last-minute confession, he added, “There won’t be a Perry Mason here, I don’t think, but you never know what happens, right?”
Trump has previously shown little appetite for pressing the issue, telling reporters after meeting with Putin in Vietnam last November that he was done discussing it and that he believed the Russian leader’s denials were sincere.
“He said he didn’t meddle. He said he didn’t meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after the meeting.
Lawmakers from his own party said that was no longer enough. Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, said Trump must do more than ask.