(02-28-2018 02:40 AM)mrbig Wrote:  Collusion isn’t a crime. Conspiracy is. And as I wrote, conspiracy to commit the following would also be a crime.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/11/110.20

I have no idea whether the Steele dossier falls within the definition. Republicans hire an American firm to do opponresearch, that firm hires a Brit contractor, then Democrats take over the oppo research effort. I have no idea. But was anything from the Steele dossier actually used in the election?

Maybe flippant isn’t the right word. Cavalier? You obviously don’t think it is a big deal or that it matters much. Good for you! And it isn’t remembering every foreign national you spoke to, that is ridiculous.

What you have demonstrated in the Trump Tower situation seems akin to me to demonstrating that somebody stepped off the curb a foot outside the white lines of the crosswalk, then immediately got into the designated walking area. It goes nowhere in demonstrating collusion/conspiracy. Didn't somebody here publish the actual instructions to Mueller? What word does it use?

As for the remembering of every foreign national I spoke to, I am just going by what I have seen in the Jeff Sessions case and what other lawyers have told me about both OOJ and money laundering.

I am very tired of every contact with a Russian being hailed as evidence that this conspiracy exists, while at the same time the Clinton Campaign actually pays for somebody to gather dirt from Russians and is given a free pass because they craftily placed three degrees of separation between them.

Seems the whole case hangs on a mass of technicalities and gotchas. Does it show a collusion conspiracy? No. wWll it? No, unless you come up with something much more concrete, like a transcript of a phone call in which somebody makes an quid pro quo offer to Putin or a cancelled check. The whole proposal is ridiculous, and the political origin and goal of it cannot be denied.

My opinion is that it is, was, and will be a witch hunt. I don't have to wait for the final say-so to have that opinion, just as some of the people out there are firmly of the belief that trump called Vlad and had him steal the emails and publish in the foreknowledge that that would be enough to tip the election to him. Some people still think the moon landings were filmed in Utah. I think the moon landing theories and the Russian-Trump collusion theories belong in the same wastebasket.

I guess at some point, this will be over. I think at that time I can give a hearty "I told you so" to the conspiracy theorists, who will answer, "No, I told you so - see the eleven indictments for anything but collusion/conspiracy."

Until then, I guess y'all will just have to put up with this American giving his opinion, and not waiting meekly for the authorities to tell me what to think.