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Indictments, guilty plea in Trump-Russia probe become lesson for UIndy students

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Professor Laura Wilson called an audible Monday.

She shifted the focus of her University of Indianapolis American Political Behavior class to the behavior that sparked charges against former aides to President Donald Trump.

“Robert Mueller is in charge of that investigation,” Wilson said to the class.

In a class full of political junkies, the students are bound to speak up.

“Obviously (Trump) knows something,” one student said. “There is something there.”

But Wilson, an assistant professor of political science, is quick to remind the students that there is no proof of direct involvement from the president.

“There is no direct tie to the campaign as of yet. That part, the president would be correct on,” Wilson said. “But it doesn’t necessarily mean that nothing that happened wasn’t influential in the campaign itself.”

Wilson said the charges will deal a blow to Trump’s approval rating (at 38 percent in recent polls) but his base of loyal supporters is not going anywhere.

When Wilson asked the students who expects more charges from Mueller’s investigation, more than half the class’s hands shot up. But some of them preferred to use their words.

“We have to stand true to that democracy we believed in as little kids, and hope that there can be a light at the end of the tunnel,” one student said.

Wilson said she expects that this is the beginning of the investigation. She said her class will keep discussing new developments.