I'm no secret agent, but the one thing I do know - mostly from watching movies and television - is that both the CIA and the KGB use blackmail to turn a citizen into an informant or even a mole. Once either side has the "goods" on a person - an incriminating videotape, evidence of accepting a bribe, a clandestine affair, what have you - they can then get that person to do their bidding for them by holding the threat to release the information they have to the police, a spouse, the media, or whatever befits the situation.

The Giant Orange Pumpernickel (GOP) met one-on-one several times with former KGB operative and now President of Russia Vladimir Putin.  The GOP refuses to release transcripts of what was discussed, and reportedly even had the transcripts of the conversations destroyed.  Whatever was said, we may not ever know. And the GOP certainly doesn't want us to find out.

But here's the thing - there were two interpreters in the room - one English and working for the U.S., and the other one Russian.  There are two sets of transcripts - one in English and another in Russian.  The GOP had the English one destroyed but there's no reason to believe that the Russian one doesn't still exist.

That's all the KGB should need.  They can use the threat of the transcript somehow getting released to the media to get the GOP to do their bidding.  Classic espionage blackmail.  The GOP may not completely fold over just the transcript, but who knows - there's no telling what's on them. When you add the transcripts to the loans and nefarious financial dealings the GOP has with Russian banks and oligarchs (he still won't release his tax returns, and calls any investigation into his financial affairs a "red line" that shall not be crossed), you start to sense the leverage Russia probably has over the American President.  Not to mention the pee tape . . . .

Time and again, the GOP has sided with Putin and with Russia on issue after issue, discounting the advise and counsel of his own intelligence agencies and advisors.  We wants to lift sanctions. He denies Russian interference in the 2016 election.  He's even speculated the unthinkable - a U.S. withdrawal from NATO.  

Why is he so interested in not only protecting but advancing Russian interests?  What have they got on him and what is he trying to hide?

Since he is tainted by, at the very least, the appearance of being compromised, and since the American public cannot tell if his foreign policy decisions are based on interest in protecting the U.S. or due to fear of being exposed, the honorable thing for him to do, the only thing really, would be to step down.  He's no longer able to defend the country and the constitution.  Dereliction of duty.  He must resign.

I know that's not gonna happen though . . .