Joe K wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2019 8:45 pm
Steve of phpBB wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2019 4:53 pm
But that is all the Mueller Report found no evidence of.
You had Russia offering the Trump campaign illicit assistance, the campaign saying "I love it, especially later in the summer," and then the campaign formed strategies around it the Russians' assistance, fully exploited it, and then helped to cover it up, both before and after the election and before and after the inauguration. At no point did the campaign repudiate or report the foreign interference.
That's collusion, and that is what people like Adam Schiff have been talking about.
This is just one example of how the known facts have been sensationalized a bit to fit the preset narrative of a criminal conspiracy, which is made clear by the Mueller Report’s discussion of this meeting. Although the attendees at the Trump Tower meeting had some connections to the Russian government, which they played up to get the meeting, it’s never been shown that they were actually acting on behalf of the government. So it wasn’t “Russia” offering assistance but rather a handful of Russian citizens. Moreover, it’s not clear the assistance offered was “illicit.” They did
not claim to have hacked or stolen documents from Clinton or the DNC. Rather, they (falsely) claimed to have Russian government records showing misconduct by the Clintons. Mueller specifically addressed whether seeking such information could be a campaign finance violation and concluded it likely was not. That’s why no one has been charged or will be charged in connection with the Trump Tower meeting. So if that’s the best evidence of “conclusion,” it’s not saying much.
Dude, just wow.
I don't know who specifically has said that Trump's dealings with the Russians were directly criminal. But they were definitely disloyal and a betrayal of Trump's duty to the United States. And the collusion wasn't just the Trump Tower meeting - it was primarily the DNC emails.
What the Trump Tower meeting accomplished was making it clear that the Russian government's illicit assistance (and of course it's illicit, the Russian government can't offer non-illicit election assistance) would be welcomed. It would not be repudiated. It would not be reported to the FBI. Manafort, Page, Papadopolous, Flynn would not be wearing a wire when they met with Russians.
So you end up with Russia stealing emails from the DNC and giving them to Wikileaks. Then you have Wikileaks putting them on a website, and Trump saying "Hey everyone, look at Wikileaks! And by the way, these hacks aren't being done by the Russians!" That is coordination. It is not a prosecutable crime because Mueller didn't obtain solid evidence of a "we'll do this if you do that" agreement, explicit or implicit. But in that situation, they didn't need to have an agreement, because both the Russians and the Trump campaign had the same goal - to get Trump into office regardless of any legal, moral, ethical, or fiduciary considerations.
The Mueller Report confirmed that the Trump campaign planned media and campaign strategies around the release of the DNC emails, so they and the Russians could both maximize the benefit of the Russian crimes.
And there is no way we can be sure that the email releases and Trump strategies around it (including relying on the media to keep the email releases in the public eye) didn't sway the election, since it was so close.
And his one problem is he didn’t go to Russia that night because he had extracurricular activities, and they froze to death.