Analysis by Todd Lassa

Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi two weeks ago directed Justice Department officials to open a grand jury investigation into how Obama administration officials conducted intelligence into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. 

It’s impossible not to consider this not just because of the outcome of President Trump’s meeting with Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin at Alaska’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson last Friday, but also because the DOJ investigation seems the latest example of the White House’s use of fear and intimidation to suppress further scrutiny and criticism. (For example; the federal takeover of Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police, threats to withdraw federal funding for universities and colleges, and Trump’s personal lawsuits against CBS News, ABC, The Wall Street Journal and the Des Moines Register and its pollster.)

In Friday’s Alaska confab, Trump and Putin spent less than three hours together, ending their talks earlier than planned. The two held a press conference without taking questions from the press, during which Trump “lavishly praised Mr. Putin at the expense of” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to The New York Times. 

First reports indicated that not much came from the Alaska confab, but early Saturday Trump wrote on social media (according to the NYT, which did not name the site, so very likely Truth Social) he was reversing his initial demand for a ceasefire before a permanent peace agreement.

“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” Trump wrote.

Two things in that Truth Social-esque post:

•”Determined by all” means Putin and Trump, and not Zelenskyy, who of course was not invited to the ceasefire/peace talks.

•While a peace agreement would almost certainly be more “permanent” than a ceasefire agreement in the long run the lag time until it was to take effect would give the Russian army more time to continue pounding Ukraine. 

Not coincidentally, the big demand by Putin at the summit with Trump that eventually emerged is that Moscow wants command of the entire Donbas oblast in Eastern Ukraine, including portions of the region still under Ukrainian control. 

On Sunday, US envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN’s State of the Union that Putin has agreed to a “game changing” security guarantee resembling NATO’s collective defense mandate.

All that’s left for this peace agreement is for the president of the country invaded 3½ years ago to sign the contract.

“Now it’s really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done,” Trump told Sean Hannity on Fox News Saturday. “I would say the European nations have to get involved a little bit.”

They are. To potentially avoid another disastrous White House meeting with Zelenskyy, European Union President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, NATO Secretary Mark Rutte, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb will accompany the Ukrainian president to the White House.