Don Jr., and Jared Kushner Couldn’t Have Colluded With the Russians, Legal Experts Say
Did Donald Trump, Jr., collude with a Russian attorney who allegedly had damaging information about Hillary Clinton? Did Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chief Paul Manafort, who were also there? Has anyone in the administration colluded with the Russians?
No, for one simple reason: There is no federal crime of collusion. It’s merely a political expression.
Legal Experts Chime in
“Stop using ‘collusion’ as a short-hand for criminality.”
— Paul Rosenzweig, a former deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security
“Legally it’s not enough [for the charge of collusion] for an associate of the president to work together with a Russian.”
—Renato Mariotti, former federal prosecutor
“Trying to get dirt on an opposing candidate is not necessarily a crime.”
— Laurie L. Levenson, professor of law, former assistant U.S. attorney
“I don’t think this really amounts to much, at least as a legal matter.”
—Saikrishna Prakash, professor of law
“There is no federal law that criminalizes collusion, in and of itself, between a political campaign and a foreign government.”
—Mark S. Zaid and Bradley P. Moss, national security attorneys
— From Politico
Politico compiled opinions from 15 legal experts on whether collusion constitutes a crime. Most of them agree there is no specific federal law against collusion.
There is no specific federal law against collusion.
William Jeffress, a white-collar defense attorney, who represented I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in the Valerie Plame affair, explained, “We do not have a federal statute punishing corrupt efforts to influence an election, unless done by particular prohibited acts such as vote buying or illegal political contributions.” That’s “undoubtedly wise,” he said. “Such a law would spur frequent criminal complaints against opponents by losers and even some winners of elections.”
He explained the legal charge of collusion requires that people work together to transfer something of value or commit a crime. Trying to get money or something else of value to influence an election is a crime. Conspiring with the Russians to hack emails is a crime.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, said on Fox News’ The Story that the meeting is “certainly not evidence of a crime.” Even if there is a crime of conspiracy, “conspiracy to do what?”
Turley, who’s not a conservative, thinks Trump’s critics are “so eager” to take him down that they “grotesquely extend” the U.S. criminal code. “People are so eager to bag a Trump that they’re willing to take these crimes and take them well beyond their legal moorings.”
Another renowned left-leaning law professor also defends Trump on the collusion claim. Alan Dershowitz observed, “Merely seeking to obtain the work product of a prior hack would be no more criminal than a newspaper publishing the work products of thefts such as the Pentagon Papers and the material stolen by Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning.”
The Meeting and the Documents
What about the meeting raised concerns? British publicist Rob Goldstone arranged it. He told Trump, Jr., that the documents the lawyer would provide “would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.”
He added, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Goldstone said the meeting would be with a “Russian government attorney.” That attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, later denied that she worked for the government.
Goldstone said that the “Crown Prince of Russia” talked with Putin’s billionaire ally Aras Agalarov about providing intel to the Trump campaign. By “Crown Prince,” Goldstone may have been referring to Russia’s Prosecutor General. Trump, Jr. said in a statement released on July 11 that he knows Agalarov’s son Emin. They both worked on the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Russia.
Trump, Jr., responded, “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”
The Meeting Turned to be a Bust — and a Pretext
The meeting turned to be a bust. Veselnitskaya denied in a recent interview with NBC that she had any intel on Clinton. In an interview with Sean Hannity, Trump, Jr., confirmed this. He said she made “vague, ambiguous” statements. They “made no sense.”
He said he figured out it was all a pretext. The real reason she wanted a meeting was to discuss a problem with Americans adopting Russian children.
He told Hannity, “In retrospect, I probably would have done things a little differently.” He denied any wrongdoing, however. In his statement, he said he was merely seeking “Political Opposition Research.”
President Trump had already defended his eldest son after he appeared on the Hannity show. He said in a tweet:
My son Donald did a good job last night. He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2017
President Trump and Jared Kushner
The president denied knowing anything about the meeting. Kushner had failed to list the meeting when he applied for a security clearance. This violates disclosure laws. He met today with the Senate Intelligence Committee today in a closed-door meeting to discuss his contacts with Russia. He issued a statement in conjunction with his testimony.
He explained how he missed the disclosure — he received so many emails and had so many people contact him during the campaign that he forgot about it. Additionally, he said he thought the meeting was so worthless he tried to make up a fake excuse to leave it. He denied that two phone conversations with the Russian ambassador ever occurred, and when he asked the Reuters journalist who wrote about the alleged calls for evidence, he received nothing.
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