CUE ANDY McCARTHY DEFENSE:

Time and again Trump noted that Putin had praised him. Time and again he called Putin a "leader" or a "strong leader." Time and again he promised that America would have a "great" relationship with Russia.

Trump made those comments at the exact time when his team was allegedly trying to secure a business deal that could have netted Trump millions of dollars. This is no small thing. Trump's words mattered. Putin's approval rating with Republicans doubled while Trump praised the man who could have granted him great personal profit. Yes, I'm (mainly) pleased with American policy towards Russia since Trump has been president, but Trump's actions represented an extraordinary conflict of interest. Americans were listening to Trump's praise of Putin without realizing his profit motive. That's intolerable.

Second, many of the early reports and assessments of Trump's Russia connections may well be materially wrong. [...]

In plain English, many early conclusions about the controversy may well have been based on self-serving, deceptive statements that are slowly being exposed. Many of Trump's defenders have concluded that he's done nothing wrong and that the special counsel's office is engaged in a "witch hunt" well before the facts are out and well before necessary credibility assessments have been made.

Third, to quote former prosecutor Ken White, "The conclusion that the President of the United States knew that his personal counsel was repeatedly lying to the Congress of the United States about the President's business is inescapable under these circumstances." This is a conclusion that's directly relevant to the obstruction of justice inquiry. It does not mean that the president obstructed, but it's important to remember that both the Clinton and Nixon articles of impeachment included charges related to the president's efforts to get witnesses to lie under oath. We should now ask, did the president have any role in feeding this false information to Congress?

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