It's worth noting that the Qatar problem is similar to the allegations at the core of the Trump-Russia scandal — that a Trump presidency would lift crippling economic sanctions on Putin's regime and possibly offer less confrontational policies toward Ukraine or in Syria, in return for either election help or favorable business deals for Trump or his allies. It's also important to point out these matters are still under investigation and that nothing has been proved definitely, but the bad appearances are piling up. Here's another lead for Team Mueller: The New Yorker's Jane Mayer reported this week that investigator Christopher Steele of the notorious Trump dossier — a lot of which is increasingly checking out — said he also heard from a high-level Russian source that Mitt Romney's candidacy to become Trump's secretary of state was nixed … by Putin himself. That an allegation that Russia's autocratic leader has veto power over the U.S. cabinet seems remotely credible shows how far we've fallen into the Trump rabbit hole.