The furor surrounding the FBI’s decision to examine additional emails related to Hillary Clinton’s time as Secretary of State threatens to obscure a much greater threat to U.S. national security: Donald Trump’s refusal to release documentation about his relationship to Russia.
Clinton’s use of a private email server for official exchanges, although in the words of FBI Director James Comey “extremely careless,” nonetheless has not demonstrated any harm to national security. Nor has it led to any discernible changes in Clinton’s foreign policy positions, which remain well within the broad parameters of longstanding U.S. practice.
Not so Donald Trump, who refuses to condemn Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, minimizes Moscow’s ongoing aggression in eastern Ukraine, strips out a call in the Republican platform for “providing lethal defensive weapons” to Ukraine and replaces it with softer language calling for “appropriate assistance,” repeatedly praises Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “strong leader,” demeans NATO as probably obsolete, says that we can no longer afford it, and threatens loyal American allies with non-support.
The same Trump who rails against Clinton for allegedly harming national security through her email server has publicly invited the Kremlin to engage in illegal hacking of U.S. data, then – in spite of intelligence briefings which undoubtedly enlightened him about Russian interference – has claimed that nobody knows where the cyberattacks on the Democratic National Committee originated.
Meanwhile Trump surrounds himself with advisors who have had, or still have, close business ties with Russian or Russian satellite interests. One of his most prominent surrogates, Newt Gingrich, belittles NATO ally Estonia as a suburb of St. Petersburg.
In short, Trump is calling for a radical revision of a seven-decade bipartisan consensus on U.S. foreign policy that has kept the peace in Europe. What are the roots of this remarkably dangerous U-turn? To put it charitably, Mr. Trump is not noted for his foreign policy expertise, or for that matter for basic intellectual curiosity. So could there be more concrete reasons, such as the financial interests in Russia of this self-proclaimed business genius?
The circumstantial evidence is troubling. The candidate’s son has spoken of extensive Trump interests in Russia, and there has been widespread discussion of the Trump organization’s entanglement with Russian financiers.
But Trump adamantly refuses to disclose his income tax returns and other business documents, without which no definitive assessment can be made. One is left to speculate whether Trump’s radical pro-Russian foreign policy is simply a case of his being seduced by Putin’s flattery or if he is somehow being pressured or blackmailed by Kremlin-affiliated individuals.
These are questions fundamental to U.S. national security, and the American people need to know the answers now. An immediate and full release of Trump’s tax returns and Russia-related business documents is imperative.
Michael Haltzel, former foreign policy advisor to Vice President (then-Senator) Joseph R. Biden, Jr., is Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
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