C0llusion, obstruction, no exoneration
Did Donald Trump collude with Russians during the election process? Answer: "Absolutely!" The colloquial definition in every English dictionary is similarly defined as follows, "Collude: cooperate in a secret or unlawful way in order to deceive or gain an advantage over others." The Mueller report dealt with the legal definition of "conspiracy" in which they did not establish sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in court, which does not mean there was no evidence. In fact, the report lists numerous incidents which exactly fit the dictionary definition.
The report states, "several individuals affiliated with the Trump Campaign lied to the Office," and "those lies materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference." "Even when individuals testified or agreed to be interviewed, they sometimes provided information that was false or incomplete." In his testimony to congress Mueller said many of Trump's answers were "generally" untruthful.
The report states, "Paul Manafort and Rick Gates knowingly shared internal polling data and information on battleground states with a Russian spy." Manafort provided Kilimnik a briefing that included "the Campaign's messaging and its internal polling data," and the discussion of battleground states which Manafort identified as "Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota."
Manafort, Gates, Papadopoulos, Flynn, and others had clandestine meetings with Russians and lied about them. During the campaign Donald Trump had a Moscow Trump Tower project in the works with cooperation of Putin and repeatedly lied to the American people saying he had no business interests in Russia. This, ladies and gentlemen, is collusion.
In his May 2017 interview with Lester Holt concerning the FBI investigation into collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia, Trump made this statement, "He (Rosenstein) had made a recommendation. But regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself -- I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story." That shows his intent to fire Comey for the express purpose of obstructing the FBI investigation into collusion.
Trump is the un-indicted, co-conspirator in the felony campaign violations of porn star cover up payoffs. Mueller testified that Trump could certainly be prosecuted after leaving office.
Oren Piper
Siloam Springs
Editorial on 08/07/2019