Trump says collusion is not a crime as first Russia probe trial begins

[UpInArms]

Source: Reuters

Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that "collusion is not a crime" as the first trial in federal Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe begins.

"Collusion is not a crime, but that doesn’t matter because there was No Collusion (except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats)!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

The trial of his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, on tax and bank fraud charges was scheduled to begin in Virginia on Tuesday. Mueller is investigating whether Trump campaign officials worked with Moscow to try to sway the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

While collusion is not a technical legal charge, Mueller could bring conspiracy charges if he believes there was such work by campaign members with Russia.

Read more: https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1KL1R6

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[beachbum bob]

1. lol, collusion, conspiracy, lying to federal officials...I guess its gonna be a surprise to him when

his kids are all charged, convicted and in prison

[The Liberal Lion]

2. So now we can expect Hannity and Pirro

to begin extolling the virtues of working with Putin to undermine the US election system. Get ready, in 3...2...1...

[Cosmocat]

15. They already have

For a while now, maybe not those particular scumbags, but you hear/read enough republican people say "we should thank Russia for helping us to avoid Hillary at POTUS" to know their are conservative propagandists who are putting that thought into their heads ...

[gordianot]

3. Someone early in the game gave Trump the collusion idea.

Donald would not be smart enough to think of it on his own. It might have been Russians, Roger Stone or maybe even Manafort. Change the name of the crime you are committing is clever. Angering entitled people be they voters or sponsors is not.

[Fred Sanders]

4. The Animal Farm strategy will not work because the LAW does not give a fuck about propaganda.

[PubliusEnigma]

9. Court of Law beats Court of Public Opinion

[cstanleytech]

6. He isnt very smart to keep clinging to it though as it will not protect him in the end if he was

engaged in a criminal conspiracy with the Russians to commit crimes such as hacking into the DNC or making a deal to try and ease if not abolish the sanctions in place on Russia in exchange for their help in committing said hacking.

[gordianot]

10. I figure it is all he has got he was in perpetual financial trouble.

Finding foreign sponsors willing to promote his image was his savior. You can only last so long with one third voter support especially when you anger the old domestic money.

[Botany]

5. So Trump is now admitting to what he and his people said never happened.

How many times did Trump say that he and or his campaign had no contacts w/Russia?

1:06 Mike Pence, "Of course not why would the campaign have any contacts w/Russia?"


Trump knows that it is all coming out and he is trying to get ahead of the story.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. This is about Stage 4 of fighting a retreating battle, though it is stage 6 of Giuliani here

[dalton99a]

8. +1

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. 6 stages.

1. What meeting?

2. Oh that meeting; nothing about the campaign. That was just about child adoptions in Russia. (Ironic considering Trump 2018 Child Abductions)

3. Oh, yeah, it was about Russian dirt on Hillary. But there was no collusion!

4. Maybe there was collusion. Collusion is not a crime!

5. Okay okay, collusion is conspiracy and a crime. But we did it for all the right reasons and you should thank us.

6. We don't talk about that part of history we are erasing and if you do we'll send you to a camp.

[scarytomcat]

17. now there is a meeting to plan the meeting

that never happened and no one knows about except it was about adoptions

[Dopers_Greed]

12. What will be the talking point next

1. There was no collusion.
2. There was no collusion, but if there was, it's not a crime.
3. There was collusion, but it's not a crime.
4. There was collusion, but if it's a crime, the President is immune to prosecution.
5. ???

[Mc Mike]

13. ...so just forget I brought 'collusion' up.

[Nitram]

14. Collusion is not a crime? Then why all the NO COLLUSION!!! tweets?

"It's not a crime, and if it is, I didn't do it."

[scarytomcat]

16. this Manafort trial is not about collusion it is about money laundering

and illegal campaign donations before Manafort became campaign chairman. This trial could implicate the republican party and it's fund raisers like M. Cohen and others.
We will get to the other crimes of dump's family after election such as conspiracy, election tampering, and lying to Congress and grand jury if they don't come clean.

[TomCADem]

18. Next Young Republicans Will Say Treason is Cool

Dana Rohrabacher for example has said that everyone would do it and get Campaign support from Russia.

[LiberalLovinLug]

19. Moving the goalposts all the time

They know now that Mueller does have enough evidence to bring charges of collusion. So they want to get ahead of it. Spread The next Big Lie over and over, repeat repeat repeat. collusion is not a crime collusion is not a crime collusion is not a crime...So that by the time Trump actually is charged with it, it will be a big "meh" for half the country.

[Vinca]

20. Someone on the morning shows pointed out that "bank heist" isn't a crime either.

Bank robbery, however, is. Collusion is just another word for conspiracy and if it's a criminal conspiracy . . . oops!

[brooklynite]

21. Misleading headline...

While the charges came about as a result of the Russia investigation, they are about bank fraud and have nothing to do with Russian hacking or collusion.