It All Happened in Full View
Fifty years ago, the Watergate scandal offered the country a mystery that followed the pattern of a traditional detective story. A crime had been committed. Who did it, and why? First the media, and then Congress and prosecutors, followed the clues for two years—until, at last, evidence was discovered proving that the culprit was indeed President Richard Nixon.
The Trump-Russia scandal, by contrast, offers an update on the old formula, much as the innovative Columbo series did in the 1970s. The offense and the perpetrator were revealed to the audience in full at the very beginning of the story. The question is not: Who did it? That answer has been known from the very start. The issue in suspense is whether the perpetrators will be held to account.
Aaron Zelinsky, who was a career prosecutor in the Department of Justice, testified on Wednesday in
