Wish I knew specifically how the statute applicable to collusion reads.

Is "trying to collude with" a foreign government the equivalent of "colluding with" them, for purpose of enforcement?

There's a pronounced whiff of traitorous behavior in just "trying," I think, but I'm guessing that intent alone doesn't suffice to prosecute, so we still need the goods.

We're continually almost there...

I'd call it espionage.

Trump Jr. statement said he released the emails to be transparent.

Some guy on CNN just said that's BS. Apparently the New York Times had the emails and contacted Trump Jr. for comment. Jr. told them to hold off and scrambed to post them himself before they did.

I know there is no way it could happen, but I think we need a do over for the presidential election. I don't think anyone in the current Republican administration is fit to take over if it comes to that.

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Easier to read transcription of the emails...

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I continue to be stunned by how much information the FBI appears to have on this. Is it remotely possible that their investigation is already complete?

Today, in particular, it feels as if we're getting some kind of "controlled feed," maybe for the simple reason that this story is so very big and sprawling, it's hard to digest all at once?

Or possibly it's necessary for the FBI to "control" release of its findings for some other reason?

Yes, I realize that the FBI doesn't generally "release" its findings at all (and I also realize what I'm typing sounds awfully cloak-and-dagger-ish), but...you must concede that we've never seen such torrential levels of "leaks" from the FBI???

The email thread exposes not just a singular Trump son but rather the Trump campaign as an organization coordinating with people representing themselves as foreign government officials. People also on it include Manafort, Jared.
Here's Bob Bauer, fror Obama WH counsel, in Fortune.

Of course, the campaign is Donald Trump’s campaign, his authorized committee for seeking election to the presidency. Was he aware that the campaign was courting assistance from the Russian government? Will his campaign team all testify that on an organizational initiative so central to his electoral strategy, they said nothing to the candidate about these communications from and with Russia? The congressional investigating committees and Special Counsel Robert Mueller will now be probing for these answers.

Filed under - what if Hillary or Obama had done this

The plot thickens. Today's WaPo reports that Fusion GPS is coming into the spotlight again.

On Monday, Mark Corallo, a spokesman for President Trump’s outside counsel, alleged that the meeting had been set up under false pretenses and implied that Veselnitskaya’s association with Fusion GPS was relevant to the alleged deception.

As to Veselnitskaya's previous association with Fusion GPS, jog your memory here:

Fusion GPS has said that it was working for the law firm BakerHostetler, which was representing Prevezon, a Russian holding company based in Cyprus, in its defense against Justice Department allegations that Prevezon laundered money stolen in the fraud Magnitsky uncovered. Veselnitskaya was Prevezon’s lawyer.

You'll recall that Veselnitskaya went up against U.S. prosecutor Preet Bharara in that money laundering case, whom Trump unceremoniously canned in the weeks before the case was settled to Russia's satisfaction.

However, you'll recall that it was also Fusion GPS who contracted with Christopher Steele to create the infamous "Trump dossier," initially for its anonymous Republican clients, then after the primary for its Democratic operative clients.

About the seeming contradictory interests of these two groups of clients, WaPo says:

There’s no evidence that the work Fusion GPS did for BakerHostetler on behalf of Prevezon and their work on the Trump dossier were connected. In fact, the former seems to advance Russian interests while the latter is hugely problematic for the Russian government. It’s entirely possible that the firm was working on two separate Russia-related projects for clients who had opposing interests, roughly at the same time.

If the Trump team continues to allege the two cases are related, the congressional and perhaps federal inquiries into the firm could be just getting started.

And the inquiries are getting started, albeit at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee coming up next week which had been scheduled well before we got to read Trump Jr's emails (or hear his defense of them).

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has expressed curiosity about Fusion GPS's operations since last spring and is undoubtedly more perplexed now.

I lamented previously (in my very first post on this thread):

Wish I knew specifically how the statute applicable to collusion reads.

Hmm. So it turns out that "collusion," in and of itself, is not any crime under federal law. However, here's a really helpful, easily readable overview for us laypeople (from 15 separate attorneys and law professors) explaining just which federal laws the Trump campaign may have broken in its insatiable quest for "dirt" on its opponent.

Looks like all but two of these professionals think there's enough smoke to suggest a fire somewhere.

I've wondered if Comey knew about Trump Jr's emails with the Russians concerning Hillary's emails prior to the election and that's why he released information two weeks before the election. He may have known Trump's group was planning to release the information at the last minute when there wouldn't be time to rebute it and he was trying to head it off before it could affect the election, but it turned out that it was to late anyway.

Then there is more.

The Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. and others on the Trump team after a promise of compromising material on Hillary Clinton was accompanied by a Russian-American lobbyist — a former Soviet counterintelligence officer who is suspected by some U.S. officials of having ongoing ties to Russian intelligence, NBC News has learned.
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The Russian-born American lobbyist served in the Soviet military and emigrated to the U.S., where he holds dual citizenship.

Lies and more lies.

I don't see the 'bombshell.' Governments do this all the time. I remember Israeli Ambassador to the UN Yitzhak Rabin openly supporting Nixon for president in 1972, and Golda Meir voicing support for the Vietnam War. As a direct result of this 'intervention,' Jewish Agency chair Max Fisher set up "Jews for Nixon" and actively campaigned for Nixon's reelection. (The Jewish Agency has direct ties to the government of Israel.)

And I need not mention the US government's 'intervention' - sometimes armed - in the internal affairs of other countries.

More revelations...

Clinton/DNC documents delivered to Trump Jr. at the meeting?

Breaking: Trump waterboy/mailroom clerk don't know nothing about no Russian collusion...

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