Donald Trump's decision to declassify evidence given by ex-British spy Christopher Steele over the former president's alleged links with Russia led to the disappearance of two sources, Steele said.
The actual phrasing in the report was very specific: no evidence of conspiracy with members of the Russian government. There was plenty of evidence of collusion with Russian oligarchs and shady non-governmental entities.
There was also a lengthy discussion on how that’s different from “nothing happened”, because of all the obstruction.
They “found no evidence” means no quid-pro-quo documents, no one (of the limited pool they were allowed to talk to) admitted to a quid-pro-quo plan or agreement, and that they couldn’t prove a causal link through specific Russian actors between Trump’s “Russia, if you’re listening…” and an allegedly Russian organization hacking the DNC. They couldn’t get any Russians to admit to an exchange of instructions with the Trump campaign, in part because they’re all in Russia and never interviewed.
They did find a lot of evidence of obstruction of justice, like Trump threatening people who’d be in position to know about quid-pro-quo plans and agreements and those people refusing to answer questions, and those are the accusations they claimed to be unable to make because of the sitting-President thing.
I guess a request for a hostile foreign nation to interfere in our elections by itself is legal? And Trump Jr. gladly accepting materials saying “If it’s what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer.” is not active and willing collusion with foreign intelligence? I guess that may be true but it beggars belief.
Is this true?
I thought it was more like… there’s some fuckin bullshit here but you can’t prosecute a sitting president so…
The actual phrasing in the report was very specific: no evidence of conspiracy with members of the Russian government. There was plenty of evidence of collusion with Russian oligarchs and shady non-governmental entities.
There was also a lengthy discussion on how that’s different from “nothing happened”, because of all the obstruction.
They “found no evidence” means no quid-pro-quo documents, no one (of the limited pool they were allowed to talk to) admitted to a quid-pro-quo plan or agreement, and that they couldn’t prove a causal link through specific Russian actors between Trump’s “Russia, if you’re listening…” and an allegedly Russian organization hacking the DNC. They couldn’t get any Russians to admit to an exchange of instructions with the Trump campaign, in part because they’re all in Russia and never interviewed.
They did find a lot of evidence of obstruction of justice, like Trump threatening people who’d be in position to know about quid-pro-quo plans and agreements and those people refusing to answer questions, and those are the accusations they claimed to be unable to make because of the sitting-President thing.
I guess a request for a hostile foreign nation to interfere in our elections by itself is legal? And Trump Jr. gladly accepting materials saying “If it’s what you say, I love it, especially later in the summer.” is not active and willing collusion with foreign intelligence? I guess that may be true but it beggars belief.
Jr got a pass on that one because Mueller concluded that, legally speaking, he was too stupid to understand it was wrong.