Some refreshing reality emerged from the mouth of GOP Strategist Rick Tyler this morning, commenting on what we now know just from the public record.
“They were looking for opposition research from a foreign government who doesn’t have America’s interest in mind,” Tyler said. “They were willing to coordinate with that group, they all knew it, that’s collusion.”
He noted that collusion in and of itself is not a crime and therefore the question now passes to Robert Mueller to establish whether the collusion that did happen can be construed as a crime.
Readers of this column know that the entire reason that Mueller has filed charges against the Russians, knowing they will never come to trial, is to set the predicate crime, that of fraud against the United States, attempting to steal an election, and having done that, the key becomes whether Mueller can prove that Trump knew of the Russian activities, thus engaging in the conspiracy.
“Now whether it meets definition of conspiracy or broke any particular laws, that’s a different question,” Tyler said. “There’s collusion with the Trump campaign with the Russians, that was clear,” he said. “Whether it amounted to anything has not been proven. They were willing to meet with Russian operatives to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. I reject the notion that, the idea — we are all using political world opposition research and opposition research people base their reputation on providing accurate information.”
It comes down to whether Mueller can prove that Trump knew about the Russian effort and took at least one action to help the Russians, even a non-criminal act.
But, I also believe this is where Brennan’s statements really got to Trump, because Brennan likely knows exactly how much Trump knew and likely that Trump did take action to assist the Russians …”Russia, if you’re listening …” could easily be construed as the “go ahead” because it was that very night that the Russians made their first attempt at hacking the Clinton server.
Regardless, the video, and be sure to follow me on Twitter, as we enter the weekend and loosen things up a bit. @MiciakZoom
