Collusion

It's amazing that the GOP has successfully spun "collusion" in a way that it's largely accepted that, unless Donald Trump himself personally spoke to Russian officials about the election, there were was no "collusion". It's a triumph of semantics and legal technicalities.

Whether or not the Special Counsel finds sufficient evidence to meet the very hard legal standards of "collusion", we know for a fact that it happened. Even President Trump himself now admits-- in light of today's indictments-- that the Russians interfered with the election (though he claims we know it didn't affect the outcome). Goal-posts moved!

We know the following:
1. The Russians worked with internet trolls, hackers like Wikileaks, and more to harm Hillary Clinton's campaign and poison our democracy in an effort to aid the GOP. That effort continues in 2018. A coordinated propaganda machine of epic proportions.

2. The Trump campaign was filled with shady actors, such as Paul Manafort... who worked for Trump FOR FREE, and was receiving $$$ from overseas scum like Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, the Russia-backed president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, and others. Trump is no fool. He had knew that there was a reason Manafort did not require a campaign salary. He accepted his help until it became a big story.

Another figure was Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos who was told, around April 2016, that high-level Russian officials had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton and "thousands" of her emails. He did not contact authorities to report this crime, and instead this knowledge affected a lot of the campaign's behavior afterward.

3. Trump openly welcomed the Russian efforts, praising Wikileaks countless times during the campaign, and even stating in July of 2016 at a public event, “I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”.

4. Wikileaks had been in contact with Donald Trump Jr, GOP operative Roger Stone, and others. They all claim the exchanges were innocuous.

5. Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort (the latter, still then campaign manager) attended a private meeting at Trump Tower in July 2016 with a Russian lawyer and others. The meeting was arranged after Trump Jr. was promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton. The Trumps continued to lie about the meeting well into 2017. There is no way that this meeting was arranged with Don Sr's blessing.

So, again, what does all this mean legally? Who knows. We will see, either way. But there is no doubt that the Trump campaign was aware-- well before the general public-- that the Russians were working illegally to sabotage the election, and they actively participated in (and encouraged) these efforts. We should not allow that to be spun away.