The astonishing email
just released by Donald Trump Jr., setting up the meeting last year with
a Russian lawyer, is devastating for the White House. Above all, it
underscores that the Trump family knew of a secret Russian campaign to
interfere in the American election — and embraced it.
Read the whole email exchange,
but here’s the key paragraph: “The Crown prosecutor of Russia … offered
to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and
information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia
and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high
level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its
government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
This passage
undermines the Trump and White House position in three crucial ways —
not attributed to vague “sources” but in black and white documentary
form. Here’s what the email does:
1. It shows that the Russian government was behind the effort. This is the Kremlin, not random Russians.
2. The Russian
government is offering “sensitive” information and “official documents”
that would incriminate Hillary Clinton. The clear implication is that
this material is stolen by spies, probably hacked, for how else would
the Russian government have it?
3. The offer is part of a pattern of the Russian “government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
Put these three points
together, and it’s clear from the email that the Russian government has
picked sides and is trying to secretly affect the outcome of the
American presidential race by providing stolen information about a
former secretary of state. For months, the Trumps have been publicly
doubting that the Russian government interfered in the U.S. election,
when Donald Trump Jr. had email evidence of this effort in June 2016!
The moment he got this
email, Donald Trump Jr. should have called the F.B.I. That’s what the
Al Gore campaign did in 2000 when it received a Bush campaign briefing
booklet. It’s one thing to do opposition research; everybody does that.
It’s another thing to use stolen information secretly provided by a
rival nation where journalists and dissidents end up dead.
Instead of calling the F.B.I., Donald Trump Jr. responded “I love it.”
He then summoned Jared
Kushner and Paul Manafort to join the meeting. In other words, informed
of a covert Russian effort to use espionage to interfere with the U.S.
election, he embraced it.
I don’t know whether this is criminal. I do know that it’s disgraceful.
I don’t know whether this is criminal. I do know that it’s disgraceful.
This is also arguably
“soft collusion,” acceptance of a foreign power’s interference in an
election for one’s own benefit. Whether there was a quid pro quo and
“hard collusion,” we’ll have to see. We do have the outlines of a quid
pro quo, in which each side was signalling what it wanted: The Trump
campaign wanted dirt on the Clintons, and Russia wanted an easing of
sanctions if Trump was elected.
After this meeting,
the Trumps or the White House denied at least eight times that such a
meeting had taken place. That is duplicity on top of collusion.
Nobody should be heartened by this. It’s a sad day for the country.
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