As others have pointed out, there’s nothing remotely illegal about an independent businessman talking to people in Russia connected to the government. That could describe any of Trump’s conversations with various oligarchs – conversations we already knew about, thanks to Eric Trump. So there’s no reason that Obama would interfere.
So why is this a story now? Because in 2017, we now know, factually, that our President was elected with aid from Russia, and that many members of his administration have deep ties to the Russian government; several have been forced to resign because of it. So knowing how deeply President Trump himself is in bed with the Russians, and for how long, is of far more interest now than it was in 2015.
Well, I think it’s truer of people who didn’t live through watergate (myself included). I think that we often forget that many thing sin history unfolded over a long time (like the end of the Cold War or Watergate or whatever).
A foreign national shall not, directly or indirectly, make a contribution or a donation of money or other thing of value, or expressly or impliedly promise to make a contribution or a donation, in connection with any Federal, State, or local election.
The “other thing of value” has been stated by legal experts to cover services, including opponent research. Basically, you can’t use any resources or help from foreign nationals to run your campaign. The assistance Russians were offering here – “incriminating information about Hillary Clinton” – would absolutely have been unlawful, and I really, really don’t think there was any they might have offered that wouldn’t have triggered the law.
If the Russians had been honestly offering some important, lawfully obtained information about Clinton’s hypothetical crimes, it would still have been crime for the Trump campaign to get it from them. The legal & honest thing for the Trump campaign to do, when contacted by Goldstone saying Russians wanted to help Trump, would have been to immediately contact FBI and tell them everything. They didn’t, they jumped at the opportunity to get something hot to use against Clinton, and never showed any sign of caring about where the info was coming, how the Russians had got it, or what motivations they had for offering it.
What evidence would it take to convince you that there was collusion? I mean, Jr.'s email had pretty much everything one could ask for except for the explicit phrase “We are so happy to have the opportunity to knowingly collude with the Russian government on helping my dad win this election.”
No, it’s okay, because Jared went back and amended his statement to include a shitload of contacts he had “forgotten about.” (Kind of like how Sessions amended his comments to avoid perjury?) Of course, this is the same Jared who proposed a secret, not-able-to-be-monitored-by-US-intelligence communications channel with the Russians.
How does Jared Kushner still have his top-level security clearance?!
Will any crimes committed by these people be punished? Or even acknowledged?
If that’s the law, and if your interpretation is correct that information (however obtained) constitutes assistance, then its hard to see how, in the age of the Internet, a candidate could avoid breaking it.
I imagine one could, in the age of the internet, delete the email with the offer of illegal assistance from a foreign national; or better yet, forward it to the FBI. Much the way that everyone on this BBS does on a regular basis to emails from Nigerian princes and Treasury Department/IRS enforcement warnings.
I think that’s everyone’s interpretation of it. Campaigns pay money for opposition research. It is a thing of value. If a foreign national provides you with opposition research, she or he has provided you with something of value.
To me, all this back and forth, smoke but no actual proof of tangible wrongdoing… it’s like one of those boxing matches that goes on round after round, the guys are basically dancing around each other, throwing a punch here, punch there, never really landing anything DING, next round, same boring dancing around squirrel fight that comes down to a split decision because they have to lift one guy’s arm at the end of it. Whenever that is. I hate those kind of fights, and this political battle is the same exact thing. It’s friggin boring, annoying, childish and time-wasting. I hate it. All of it, on both sides. The country is being held hostage to all this stupid nonsense and there is no good way to resolve it.
