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Collusion Is Possible
It has become an article of faith in some quarters on the right – well, most — that the Mueller investigation has found no evidence of collusion with Russia and has accordingly shifted gears to process crimes like lying to the FBI or obstruction of justice. Having decided that this must be true, many have called for Mueller to wrap it up.
But this requires a lot of wishful thinking.
Consider the sentencing memos. Most of the attention has focused on the payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. But the Office of Special Counsel advised a federal judge that Michael Cohen had committed other serious crimes. He “withheld information material to the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.” He later came clean. Mueller’s office recommended that Cohen be given some credit for this, and included this wording: Cohen “voluntarily provided the SCO with information about his own conduct and that of others on core topics under investigation by the SCO . . . the information he provided has been credible and consistent with other evidence obtained in the SCO’s continuing investigation.”
The “core topic” under investigation is Russian interference in the election. The “other evidence” is unknown to us at this point, but it’s safe to assume that it’s significant, because Mueller would not rely on Cohen’s word alone.
In the sentencing memo about Michael Flynn, Mueller’s office noted that he was cooperating on three criminal investigations. Three.
This should give pause to those who say “If there were any evidence of collusion with Russia, we would have heard of it by now.” Not necessarily. The Mueller investigation has been the most silent of any in memory. He doesn’t leak. His spokesman is said to have the simplest job in Washington, saying “no comment.”
At least 14 people in Donald Trump’s orbit were approached by Russian agents during the campaign and transition. These included his children, his lawyer, his national security advisor, and business associates. His campaign chairman, Trump had reason to know when he hired him, was up to his eyeballs in oligarchs. Supposedly, when Trump learned of Paul Manafort’s extensive Russia ties in 2016, he said “I’ve got a crook running my campaign.” Today he paints Manafort as a martyr and ostentatiously dangles a pardon, even though we’ve since learned of Manafort’s close ties to an asset of Russian intelligence. And it’s worth asking again: If Mr. Trump was such a keen businessman, why didn’t he question Manafort’s willingness to work for free? Shouldn’t it have alarmed him to have someone so indebted to shady Kremlin associates so close?
President Trump has repeatedly denied any connections to Russia. In July, 2016 he told CBS “I mean I have nothing to do with Russia. I don’t have any jobs in Russia. I’m all over the world but we’re not involved in Russia.” And in September, he told a rally “I have nothing to do with Russia, folks. I’ll give you a written statement.”
You don’t have to credit the lurid gossip in the Steele dossier to know that those statements were lies. It has since come to light that his children and top advisors met at Trump Tower with a Russian peddling dirt on Clinton. Or just check the guilty pleas of Michael Cohen. Cohen now confirms that Trump was pursuing a Moscow tower deal until at least June of 2016. The Trump organization was hoping to get Vladimir Putin’s approval and endorsement of the idea, and were apparently considering doing business the Russian way – offering Putin himself the penthouse, valued at $50 million, as a loss leader. Trump signed a letter of intent to go forward with the project on October 28, 2015, the night of the third Republican presidential primary debate – in the midst of denials that he had anything to do with Russia.
Felix Sater, a Russian-born Trump business colleague, was working on this with Cohen. After the letter of intent was signed, Sater wrote to Cohen saying: “Everything will be negotiated and discussed not with flunkies but with people who will have dinner with Putin and discuss the issues and get a go-ahead. My next steps are very sensitive with Putin’s very, very close people. We can pull this off.”
They didn’t. But not for lack of trying. Roger Stone, a longtime Trump pal and self-styled dirty trickster, boasted of ties to Wikileaks. Others who were weirdly friendly toward the Kremlin included George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and, of course, Donald Trump, Jr.
The reason so many people of low character are proving problematic to this president is that he has always attracted that sort. If he let them conspire a little against “crooked Hillary,” would that really be a shock?
Published in Law, Politics
Too bad its not illegal, eh?
I think you need to worry about the plank in your own eye there. You aren’t exactly in a position to judge…. pretty much anybody.
I’m confused too. Trump may be ‘guilty’ of collusion but collusion isn’t a crime. So, Trump is guilty of what exactly?
If there is one certainty about the Mueller investigation it is the Special Counsel is allied with the MSM to take down Trump, and Mueller’s team uses the MSM to leak anything damaging to Trump.
After nearly two years it’s fair to say that if Mueller had something real which implicated Trump in a criminal conspiracy with the Russian Government to circumvent the 2016 election result, this information would have been leaked to the MSM by these Special Counsel sleazebags a long time ago.
I really think the primary fault lies in that Trump’s campaign had way too many self interested jackwagons like Cohen and Manafort who were crooked as the day is long. It was also that no one really thought they would win so they were all positioning themselves for money making and Trump butt kissing post election…… I didn’t like that Trump had those guys around in his campaign and I don’t think it speaks highly at all of his judgement. That said, I think the Russian “collusion” stuff is pretty sketchy and any assertion that Trump is some sort of puppet of Putin is ridiculous.
Oh, Mona! I haven’t seen so much innuendo and nonsense in one place since I canceled my subscription the The New Republic. How did you manage to leave out the formulation “some say”?
What on Earth is Mona talking about? Collusion with Russia? Her only evidence is that Trump wanted to build a condo in Moscow. If that is the standard for illegal colluding with Russia, then there are tens of thousands of businessmen in the U.S. that are also guilty. I collude with Russians more than Trump does.
This is a silly post not worthy of someone who is a contributor to National Review.
The title of the piece, “Collusion Is Possible,” falls somewhere short of earthshaking: of course collusion is possible. Allegations of collusion have been flying from about two hours after Mrs. Clinton lost the election in 2016, fanned by a non-stop barrage of media (and, in some cases, pundit) speculation and hyperventilating condemnation.
This post, unfortunately, is more of the same.
“Collusion” can mean anything from working together to conspiring to commit crimes together, with a generally recognized emphasis on the covert quality of the acts being undertaken in unison. If the Trump campaign, like the Clinton campaign, tried to get dirt on its opponents from Russian sources, and to do it stealthily, then that’s collusion — but hardly criminal.
It is possible — indeed, I think it’s likely — that the Trump campaign tried to get information from the Russians, just as the Clinton campaign did. It is possible, though I’ve seen no evidence for it, that the Trump campaign tried to engage in a criminal conspiracy with the Russians. If evidence to that effect comes out, and if it implicates the President himself, then I will join in the condemnation of President Trump for that.
But, again, I’ve seen no such evidence.
Which brings us to the rather tawdry practice exhibited in this post and elsewhere — for example, and too often, on the Commentary podcast, which I generally like and respect. This is the practice of inferring dark crimes based on a speculative reading of the prosecutorial tea leaves being slowly dropped by the Mueller investigation — a game of lurid worst-case hypothesizing.
We will, presumably, know soon enough what, if anything, Mr. Mueller and his people have uncovered. Attempting to infer too much meaning into the shifting plea deals offered a crooked shyster, or into the on-again off-again business machinations of an amoral New York celebrity real estate developer, of a man who will happily shake hands with any scoundrel if it will get another eponymous building erected, seems more like wishful thinking than reporting.
Apparently, wishful thinking abounds.
You took the words right out of my mouth! I swear I was just about to write that about Mona.
She left out “concerned,” too.
It may be possible. However, would you agree that it is undoubted that the Clinton campaign colluded withh the Russians, and corrupted an eager FBI and DOJ. Why hasn’t a special prosecutor been assigned to that, while we patiently await Mr. Mueller?
Because Mueller was put in place to cover up the Clinton collusion.
But she scored on “problematic”!
Problematic, unlike taking Pierre Omidyar’s money.
Well Mona, you tried.
While I think that you are pretty accurate, lots of the Ricochetti here who have commented aren’t buying it. However, I suspect that a much higher percentage of non-commenters are in general agreement with you.
I also suspect that a large number of Americans are simply exhausted by Trump and want the drama to stop. To that end, many of them sent a clear message to us in the 2018 elections that we are busy ignoring.
Time will tell.
Zombie politicians
Tamara Keel:
Some of us are exhausted by the anti-Trump fantasies and nonsense. All we can agree on is “time will tell”.
Well, you also have more Cherokee DNA than Elizabeth Warren does, so it all evens out.
Heap good observation, White Man!
Right. All we get from you and Mona is endless drama. And you want it to stop.
We want a wall, more regulatory reform. lower taxes, a stronger military and better trade and an economy, and more great judges. But thanks to the back stabbers we got Nancy and the entire Insane Clown Party in the House.
The Mueller probe will end in 2024, after the President’s second term ends. That’s what the resistance wants. Mueller forever!
I actually think that to make it fair, though, every president going forward should have its own Mueller probe, too. Because collusion is always possible. And if you never stop looking it’s possible you might find something.
The is a market for collusion porn. Some like to write it and others like to read it.
Possible? POSSIBLE?? Me holding the winning lottery ticket is possible! Never mind the fact I don’t buy them.
Many of the usual (R) suspects did not want to have anything to do with Trump, so Trump got what he got …. and like it or not, politics is and always has been all about “self interested jackwagons”.
Another utterly disgusting post by Mona.
Mona, please name the crime and give the specific details of the required criminal predicate for this Special Counsel. A Criminal Predicate is necessary for a Special Counsel for there cannot be a legal Special Counsel without one. We have had after almost two years no clear information about any specific crime. None what so ever. Alleging that a crime might be possible does not meet the standard for naming a Special Counsel.
What Mona again is doing is trying to undermine the Rule of Law and the Constitution with this stupid post.
Be patient, Mueller has only had 1 year, 8 months to find those Wascally Wussians.
In another 5 years at the conclusion of the Russia Collusion investigation, Trump will be doing time in prison for the sex he had at Studio 54 in the 70’s.
People don’t much like being wrong, and will become ludicrously wrong in pursuit of not considering that they are wrong.
Some people really need Trump to be destroyed; eating ashes together is surely better than eating crow alone.
Bah. Speculation spun as fact.
That the collusion narrative has failed is evidenced by the desperate gambits to get the President on other charges — campaign financing violations and now foreign donations. In other words, anything and everything. Whatever it takes.
It’s important for the future of our country that the D.C. elites fail in their attempt to remove a duly elected President and go on ignoring the concerns of the American people.