Anyone who has observed President Donald J. Trump’s repeated response to accusations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election — or to any alleged Russian hanky-panky, for that matter — has to wonder what Russian President Vladimir Putin has on him.

At times, Trump has come close to acknowledging the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia, through cyber-theft of private information and social media propaganda, tried to undermine our democratic election process, even if there is no hard evidence of vote tampering that changed the outcome.

Yet he always returns to his preferred conclusion that the Russia story is a “hoax” or “witch hunt.”

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How can one explain Trump’s tunnel vision with respect to Russia?

Here’s how. God may have given Moses the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai to serve as moral foundation for Western Civilization, but Trump seems to have added a commandment of his own: “Thou shalt not bear witness against Russia.”

Trump’s 11th commandment may not be adequate for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to prove collusion, but to the average person, Trump’s repeated refusal to admit to Russian foul play points to some level of guilt or, at minimum, an attempt to obstruct justice.

Trump has admitted to firing former FBI director James Comey, in part, to shut down the Russia probe. Several Trump campaign advisers and aides have entered guilty pleas for offenses connected with the campaign and are cooperating with the Special Counsel. Former campaign manager Paul Manafort was indicted twice, in Washington and in Virginia, for conspiracy, tax evasion and bank fraud, among other crimes. Just last month, Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies over election interference, charging them with conspiracy to defraud the U.S.

No wonder Trump’s oft-repeated assertion that “the Russia thing” is a “made-up story” was awarded the 2017 Lie of the Year by PolitiFact, the fact-checking project of the Tampa Bay Times that is now owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Trump’s Twitter feed and comments speak for themselves. For example, he has repeatedly said he takes Putin at his word when the Russian president says he didn’t interfere in the U.S. election.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One in November, following a private meeting with Putin at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Danang, Vietnam, Trump said: “Every time he sees me he says, ‘I didn’t do that,’ and I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it.”

Trump added that it was time “to move past” the issue. “You can only ask so many times… He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election.”

And who can forget Trump’s 400-pound man, whose weight clearly hasn’t impeded his activity? At the September 2016 presidential debate with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump said the following:

“She’s saying Russia, Russia, Russia but I don’t — maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK?”

OK. Trump reprised his theory of an obese, bed-ridden hacker in a Feb. 18 tweet.

At times, Trump has walked his Putin disclaimers back from the edge, but his default position remains one of trusting the strong man he admires.

After missing a deadline earlier this year to impose sanctions on Russia for election meddling — sanctions mandated by legislation Trump signed after it passed both House of Congress with almost unanimous support — today the administration imposed them for the first time.

That Trump chose not to make the announcement via Twitter is a sign that the 11th commandment to speak no ill of Putin is still in effect.

Trump’s support for Putin isn’t limited to allegations of direct attacks on the U.S. He gives Putin the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the U.S.’s closest allies as well.

Earlier this week, British Prime Minister Theresa May said it was “highly likely” that Russia was responsible for the March 4 poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter on U.K. soil. She called it a “direct act of the Russian state against our country.”

And where was Trump when it comes to the special relationship between the U.K. and the U.S.? He was noncommittal, with a bias toward Russia.

“As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be,” he said in response to reporters’ questions on Tuesday. (Italics added.)

“If we agree with them.” “Whoever it may be.” Cue the fat man.

And who will make that determination? Clearly not the intelligence community, whom Trump has overridden time and again on Russia. Trump always has the final word, if only because it is his word and his alternative facts, distorted or fabricated as they may be.

Trump takes every opportunity he can — and finds them when none present themselves — to state unconditionally that “there is no collusion” between his campaign and Russia. He was so elated when the House Intelligence Committee announced this week that it was concluding its not-really-an-investigation investigation into Russian meddling that he fired off a tweet in ALL CAPS!

While Trump’s speech patterns, including his penchant for endless repetition of words and phrases, are unique, his choice of the present tense — “there is no collusion” — is particularly telling. Mueller and Congress are interested in whether or not there was collusion prior to the election, not now.

Grammar aside, Trump goes so far out of his way to avoid saying anything disparaging about Russia that one has to wonder what he is hiding.

Perhaps one of his remaining Cabinet secretaries should remind the president that when he put his left hand on the Bible, raised his right hand and repeated the 35-word oath of office, he was pledging his loyalty to the Constitution of the United States, not Vladimir Putin of Russia.