General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNo collusion! Oh, wait -- maybe collusion!
By Paul Waldman
July 30 at 1:20 PM
Whenever Rudolph W. Giuliani makes a new round of television appearances saying false, curious or just bizarre things in defense of his client, President Trump, some people inevitably ask why he keeps getting invited back on these programs. But theres a great value to Giulianis appearances. They tell us what the president is thinking about special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into the Russia scandal and what hes afraid of. They also serve as a kind of briefing to Trumps supporters: Heres the new defense of Trumps actions, so youd better get ready to repeat this argument, however ridiculous it might be.
This morning, Giuliani appeared on Fox & Friends and CNNs New Day, and said some very interesting things. Lets begin with this portion of the CNN interview, in which he was trying to argue that Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman who is about to go on trial for a panoply of crimes, barely had anything to do with the campaign or Trump himself:
Four months, theyre not going to be colluding about Russians, which Im not even [sure] if thats a crime, colluding about Russians. You start analyzing the crime, the hacking is the crime, the hacking is the crime. Well, the president didnt hack! He didnt pay them for hacking!
Theres something else important Giuliani said on CNN, but before we get to that, heres how he reiterated the point on Fox:
Ive been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime. Collusion is not a crime.
In a very strict sense, Giuliani is right that there isnt a particular crime called collusion. But thats kind of like saying that if you walked into an Apple Store, stuffed an iPhone in your pants and walked out, youre innocent because the criminal code makes no specific reference to stuffing an iPhone in your pants.
more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/07/30/no-collusion-oh-wait-maybe-collusion-but-collusions-not-a-crime/
magicarpet
(13,941 posts)..... was legal or against the law. We promise to tell the God's honest truth. But we are sure we are innocent. Right ?