Stanley Johnson: Kompromat

He looked at his wife fondly. They were growing old together. That was how things were meant to be.

‘You did brilliantly today, darling,’ he said. ‘I guess Popov knew we were planning to visit the Karelia transnational biosphere reserve. It was on the schedule. That was our cover for the detour into the forest in case anyone asked. Popov just seized the opportunity for some back-channel diplomacy. Did you talk to him?’

‘Of course I talked to him. He’s a human being, isn’t he, not some kind of ogre?’

‘I mean when he was driving. That was tricky terrain.’

‘I don’t think Popov had any problems,’ Melissa said. ‘Most of the time he was driving one-handed.’

‘What was he doing with his other hand?’

‘Had it on my knee. Just for reassurance, of course.’

Both Wilbur Brown, director of the FBI, and Bud Hollingsworth, director of the CIA, had made time in their busy schedules to respond to the US attorney general’s urgent request.

‘This came in the post today,’ Dirk Goddard, the former Senator for Mississippi explained. ‘Brown-paper envelope. Posted in Washington yesterday.’

They sat round a table in Goddard’s office to listen to the tape.

‘ Okay guys,’ they heard Craig say. ‘ This is what we’re offering if I’m elected president. Number One, the US is going to drop the current sanctions against Russia, as regards Crimea and the Ukraine. We would hope that NATO will follow us in this, but even if they don’t, we will act unilaterally.

‘ Number Two: if I’m elected president, the United States will not challenge the deployment by Russia of the ground-based, nuclear-capable 9M729 missiles, even though possession of these missiles is a violation of the terms of the INF… Bert, what the hell does INF stand for? ’

‘ INF means the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Ron .’

‘I guess that’s Bert Rumbold,’ Wilbur Brown commented. ‘Sounds like he’s still on six packs a day.’

‘ Thanks, Bert, ’ they heard Craig say. ‘ We understand the 9M729s have a range of 620 to 3240 miles. Apparently they hit Syria from the Caspian the other day. So if we agree that their use is compatible with the INF, then Russia can legally hit every capital in Europe. More to the point, perhaps, Russia will be able to blast the living daylights out of every city in China.

‘ Let’s take China’s build-up in the South China seas. I believe the United States must be ready to go to war with China over these illegal bases. But it would be better still if Russia and the US could take a coordinated approach. We can say to China “Pull back from the Spratlys or the Russians will whack Chengdu or Xian or wherever with their 9M729 missiles can reach. ” ’

‘Now we’re going to hear the Russian ambassador to Washington, Georgiy Reznikov,’ Goddard said.

They listened right to the end of the tape, until they reached Reznikov’s damning conclusion.

‘ Thank you, gentlemen. This has been a most productive meeting. I can assure you that President Popov will be pleased. In view of what I have heard today I am authorized to tell you that between now and Election Day we will make sure that our cache of emails from the Democratic National Committee, including those from Caroline Mann, the Democratic Presidential candidate, is deployed to the fullest possible extent. We further undertake to offer Craig Shipping and Craig Oil the most favourable terms possible as far as their operations in the Russian Arctic are concerned .’

There was a pause. Then they heard Reznikov say, ‘ Of course we will, I hope, have further conversations, many further conversations when Ron – may I call you Ron? – is elected. But perhaps our discussions today will do for starters .’

There was one last intervention from Ronald Craig, the presidential Candidate. ‘ Don’t forget about my old friend Mickey Selkirk. Selkirk Global is planning a major expansion in Russia. I think he has his eyes on Pravda and Izvestia as well as RT, Russian television!’

Goddard switched the tape off. ‘So my first questions, gentlemen, are: did this conversation really happen and is this an accurate recording?’

He looked at them expectantly. They were the experts; he wasn’t.

Bud Hollingsworth raised his hand. ‘Hold on a moment, Dirk. Let’s assume for a moment this isn’t a fake. It’s a real recording of a real conversation. What would you say the implications are?’

The attorney general answered without a moment’s hesitation. ‘Totally massive. Lethal actually.’

‘Lethal to whom?’ Wilbur Brown asked.

‘To President Craig, of course,’ Dirk Goddard replied. ‘People have tried to argue the contrary, but in my view – and I’m attorney general – there’s no presidential immunity for crimes committed before taking office.’

‘You’re talking about violations of the Logan Act?’ Brown said.

‘You bet I am,’ the attorney general replied. He pulled down a thick, brown volume from a shelf. The page was already marked.

‘Listen to this,’ he said.

‘ Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. ’

‘Now, I’m a supporter of the president,’ Dirk Goddard continued. ‘He appointed me to the high office, which I now hold. But when I took up my job, I solemnly swore to uphold the Law and Constitution of the United States. So help me God. What we’ve just heard is a clear violation of the Logan Act.’

‘Nobody’s ever been prosecuted under the Logan Act, not for the last two hundred years or more,’ Bud Hollingsworth said.

‘They darn well should have been,’ Dirk Goddard countered. ‘Do you remember, back in 2007, when then-House speaker Lucy Wainwright went to Syria to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad? Or 2015, when another House speaker, David Draper, invited Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Moses to address Congress without President Matlock’s permission? I would have used the Logan Act then, if I’d been attorney general. But that’s chickenfeed besides the deal that Candidate Craig was trying to set up with the Russians.’

There was a long pause, as the two very senior officials tried to digest the full implications of what the Attorney General was saying.

Wilbur Brown shook his head. ‘You’re a lawyer, Dirk. If you based your case on the evidence of that tape, you’d lose. The president would set the pack on you. They’d ask you where you got the tape. Did the Russians send it to you as their way of signalling that the honeymoon is over? Or if the Chinese sent it, which is another possibility, did they manage to bug the Russian Embassy? The government’s lawyers would query its authenticity every which way. They’d argue that it was in any case inadmissible because it must have resulted from an unauthorized surveillance operation, so the court would have to ignore it.’

There was another long pause. Dirk Goddard, an honest man, looked truly crestfallen. He had always believed that Washington was indeed a “shining city on a hill” and, if what Wilbur Brown said was right, he was going to lose the chance to prove it.

‘Shall we tell him the good news, Wilbur?’ Bud Hollingsworth asked. ‘Will you go first? Or shall I?’