The House began its impeachment inquiry because Speaker Nancy Pelosi realized the Ukraine whistleblower case of aid in exchange for dirt was easy to understand, documented, and hard to see as anything but an impeachable abuse of power. Article One.

Yet the further the investigation proceeds the more it ramifies, throwing up further possible, plausible Articles of impeachment. For example, ordering government employees like Sondland, Yovanovitch, Taylor, and others to participate in a scheme to damage a political rival of the president in order to improve his chances for reelection is a violation of the Hatch Act — the use of public service for personal gain. Article Two.

The refusal of the executive branch to cooperate in an impeachment inquiry by the legislative branch by ordering witnesses not to testify, to ignore subpoenas, and to refuse to supply documents is obstruction of justice, as was the hiding on a secret classified server of the complete transcript of the telephone call on which Trump attempted to extort the cooperation of the President of Ukraine in a search for political dirt by withholding aid already voted by Congress. Article Three.

Seasoned prosecutors have also said the scheme meets all the tests for bribery and if brought to trial would be a slam dunk win. Article Four.

And now we learn that the motive for the demands placed on Ukraine has roots in the earlier Mueller investigation. Evidence suggests that the notion that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind the cyberplot to influence the 2016 election in Trump’s favor was disinformation planted in Trump’s head by Paul Manafort at the behest of one of Putin’s pet oligarchs Konstantine Kilimnick.

Like Manafort before him, Rudy Giuliani who is peddling the same disinformation regarding Ukraine, also appears to be motivated by the chance to profit from schemes involving dubious characters with links to Putin’s gang of oligarchs. Possibly several more Articles of Impeachment lurk in this swamp, but surely we now see a possible explanation for Trump’s peculiar attitude toward Russia.

From the beginning he has denied his intelligence services’ evidence that Russia hacked the 2016 election and helped make him president, thereby tainting his victory. Trump’s ego could not bear the thought that outside forces contrived his win. When Manafort and now Giuliani offered an alternative explanation (the corrupt Ukrainians not the innocent Putin) Trump rose to the bait. It appears Trump has also been pitched this myth by Putin himself and Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban.

Not only did this conspiracy theory mean he was a winner not a loser, it meant he could continue the theme of his presidency — the undoing of every act of Barack Obama. Obama saw Putin as a malign actor, the hacking of the election as an act of war on democracy, and the Russians deserving of punishing sanctions and the expulsion of their diplomat/spies.

So, Trump now got to ignore reality and cozy up to Putin, denounce the intelligence tracing the hacking to Russia as fake news, argue against sanctions, try to get Putin back in the G-8, and otherwise take the opposite tack from Obamas foreign policy. In the process Trump has become the very definition of the Kremlin’s favorite kind of dupe — the useful idiot.

So, Trump’s reaction to the impeachment investigation occasioned by his falling for the anti-Ukraine conspiracy theory of henchmen out for their own profits, is yet another case of his ignorance and vanity leading him to behave in ways against his own best interest.Or is it? It has also been plausibly suggested that Trump has been so anxious to conceal his tax and business records in order to hide his financial reliance on loans originating in Putin’s Russia.

Whatever dark motives are at work, rather than make a simple mea culpa regarding his errors of judgment and abuse of power vis a vis Ukraine and Russia, Trump is doubling down daily on a discredited explanation. Hardly surprising, really. After all, he has spent his career selling fantasies to rubes. Why should this case be any different?

So Trump is busily denying the reality of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and choosing the wrong side. He is continuing to claim the call with President Zelensky doesn’t incriminate him, but exonerates him. He’s even selling T-shirts encouraging people to read the damning transcript. He is aggressively stonewalling the investigation which only serves to make him look more guilty. He is attacking non-partisan civil servants and patriots doing their sworn duty, calling them traitors. He is trying to make the villainous Putin and his henchmen heroes while clinging to the discredited conspiracy theories about Ukraine, the Bidens, and the hacking of 2016.

The level of craziness on display as the Ukraine mess metastasizes is surprising even for Trump, and the effect has been to cause even deep-dyed Republican Trumpians high on the Kool-Aid to begin edging cautiously away from the President. They may not be ready to be branded rats deserting a sinking ship, but they do seem to be throwing sidelong glances at the ship’s deck plan to discover how to reach a lifeboat if the mad captain keeps steering straight for the iceberg.

That said, it is unlikely Republican senators will choose to honor their oath to defend the Constitution from all enemies domestic and foreign by convicting Trump of impeachable offenses. Like Trump, for them self-interest appears to be a more powerful motivator than duty, honor, and country.