The dud that will blow up Washington

Commentators take pains to note that Mueller, while investigating suspected coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, has charged nearly three dozen defendants. Omitted are the inconvenient facts that the indictments of Trump associates have nothing to do with Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, while the indictments of Russian cyber spies have nothing to do with Trump.


For example, “collusion” pours off every page of the lengthy “statement of the offense” Mueller filed in Papadopoulos’ case: meetings with shadowy figures portraying themselves as Kremlin assets (one even pretending to be Vladimir Putin’s niece!), talk of a trove of Clinton emails, purported plans for summits between the GOP nominee and the Russian dictator. In the end, though, it’s collusion interruptus — Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the date of a meeting. The more recent Stone indictment features 20 pages of heavy breathing about Russian cyber ops, WikiLeaks legerdemain, and the breathless anticipation of a Clinton campaign implosion. When you flip to the last two pages, though, Stone is charged in seven process crimes that impeded congressional investigations — nothing to do with conspiracy, espionage, or hacking.