It’s only the top of the second with many more innings to play

I was watching last night’s baseball game in which the Los Angeles Dodgers scored three runs in the top of the first and led the Houston Astros, 3-0, after one full inning. At that point in time, there was no evidence to suggest that the teams would go on to hit seven home runs, rally from big deficits to tie the score three separate times or go to extra innings before the Astros finally won, 13-12, in a World Series game for the ages.

Today, after former Trump campaign advisers Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were arrested on indictments acquired by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the White House enthusiastically proclaimed that the indictments provided “no evidence of collusion” between Trump and the Russians to rig the 2016 election.

Welcome to the top of the second inning.

The White House may be right about the first indictments to come from Mueller’s probe of the Trump administration and its alleged ties to Russian involvement in the presidential election. On their face, they don’t present a case for collusion or point directly at faux President Donald Trump in any meaningful way.

There is, however, an apparent mountain of evidence that Manafort laundered money, worked illegally as an agent for a foreign government and lied on official government documents – all serious crimes in my book – and that Gates may have joined him in those endeavors.

That’s really all the arrests were intended to demonstrate at this point in time. There was no evidence to suggest that Mueller, at this early stage of the investigation, even tried to prove collusion or that the special counsel is now ready to pack up his briefcase and head back to life as a corporate attorney. The man known for his thoughtfulness, his thoroughness and his attention to detail, is only getting started.

The question now is, facing a 12-count indictment and some fairly serious charges, will Manafort tell what he knows about the campaign and/or lead investigators to other campaign staffers who might have a story to tell? What happens next? Only Mueller and Manafort may know.

I also noticed the White House had somewhat less to say about former foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his dealings with Kremlin agents during the election. Trump and his lawyers appeared to fall back on one of their favorite excuses by saying that Papadopoulos was an unpaid volunteer adviser who only attended a meeting or two and was not a key player in the administration.

That may or may not be true – you never really know with Trump – but one thing is certain: Papadopoulos did work for Trump and does know other people who were active in the campaign, and his guilty plea suggests to me that he might have plenty to say to investigators as well. Can you say "John Dean?"

Today’s news was certainly exciting and it’s likely to dominate the news cycle for several days (or weeks) to come. It was greeted like a special package that arrived in the mail a few days before Christmas and sat under the tree taunting us before we could finally tear off the wrapper. Now we’ll be watching eagerly for more shoes – and more indictments – to drop on members of the Trump team.

I mean, it occurs to me that we haven’t heard much recently from Mike Flynn or Carter Page or some of the other Trumpeteers who were targeted by this investigation. Are they talking? If so, which ones are singing and which ones aren’t? What do they know and when did they know it? Oh, and did anyone look at their emails?

And then there’s Jared.

These are questions for the second, third, fifth, seventh and other upcoming innings in the Robert Mueller Special Counsel World Series. There is no evidence to suggest that the serious stuff against Trump and others won’t continue to come down in its own good time.

So, batter up!