{"id":40461,"date":"2019-04-21T15:33:07","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T19:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=40461"},"modified":"2019-04-21T15:33:07","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T19:33:07","slug":"ben-wittes-connectstrump-and-the-russians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=40461","title":{"rendered":"Ben Wittes connectsTrump and the Russians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today on Lawfare, Ben Wittes gives the best and clearest analysis of the Mueller Report on the eager collaborative effort between the Trump camp and the Russians.<\/a><\/p>\n

I say this with some authority because (1) I’ve read a lot of the Mueller Report and therefore know what I’m talking about; and (2) Ben is my cousin. (In Yiddish, my appreciation and name-droppery for and of Ben is collectively called nachas<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Some of my favorite lines as a teaser, with bits of bolding for a couple of delicious bites:<\/p>\n

<\/a>GRU Hacking Directed at the Clinton Campaign<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

If the active measures section of the report is exonerating of Trump and his campaign, the section that follows it\u2014the Russian hacking section\u2014is not. It is\u00a0much\u00a0worse\u00a0than is commonly understood for Trump.<\/em><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s tease it out, because it\u2019s actually a whopper.<\/em><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

This was not \u201cno collusion.\u201d It was Keystone Kollusion\u2014and the incompetence of it is likely the reason no crime was committed.<\/em><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

In other words, it wasn\u2019t that Trump was above dealing with Russian hackers to get Hillary Clinton\u2019s emails. He not only called publicly on the Russians to deliver the goods on his opponent, he privately ordered his campaign to seek the material out. He did this knowing himself\u2014clear from his public statements and very clear from the actions of those who acted on his request\u2014that Russia would or might be the source.<\/em><\/p>\n

The reason there\u2019s no foul here is only that the whole thing was a wild conspiracy theory. The idea that the missing 30,000 emails had been retrieved was never more than conjecture, after all. The idea that they\u00a0would be easily retrievable from the \u201cdark web\u201d was a kind of fantasy. In other words, even as a real hacking operation was going on, Trump personally, his campaign, and his campaign followers were actively attempting to collude with a\u00a0fake hacking operation that wasn’t going on.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

It is not illegal to imagine stolen emails and try to retrieve them from imagined hackers. But it\u2019s morally little different from being spoon-fed information by Russian intelligence. The Trump campaign was seeking exactly the spoon-feeding it was accused of taking; it\u00a0just couldn\u2019t manage to find the right spoon, and it kept missing when it tried to put any spoons in its mouth.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a remarkable story, and it’s not a flattering one. If nobody ran afoul of the law, the likeliest explanation is the dumbest of dumb luck.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is a remarkable story, and Ben tells it better than anyone I’ve read.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today on Lawfare, Ben Wittes gives the best and clearest analysis of the Mueller Report on the eager collaborative effort between the Trump camp and the Russians. I say this with some authority because (1) I’ve read a lot of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3271,1175,2902],"tags":[2411,4410,4402,4409,2410,4296],"class_list":["post-40461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mueller-investigation","category-the-facts-of-life","category-trump-stuff","tag-ben-wittes","tag-clinton-campaign","tag-gru","tag-gru-hacking","tag-lawfare","tag-mueller-report"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t