Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Of course they had those conversations. Who wouldn't? After the first drips from Wikileaks, it was clear Russia was sitting on a treasure trove of information damaging to Hillary and the DNC.
The important question is, was there communication which would qualify as criminal? Again, given the sophistication of the Russians, I'd have to say no. Given the idiocy of the low level Trump soldiers like Stone, I'd say some infantry there might be charged with crimes.
It's got an Iran/Contra kind of feel to it. You know some shenanigans took place, but nothing really sexy will be pinned on any of the people who matter.
A real criminal conspiracy at the highest levels would require Putin's people trusting Trump and his people. I just don't see the Russians ever doing that. Keeping the Trump people in the dark adequately enough to provide plausible deniability seems a baseline necessity.* It'd be spy malpractice to do otherwise.
__________
* ETA: In this regard, it has an Iraq/WMD bullshit campaign feel to it.
|
Over our lifetime, there have been two things you can say with a very high level of confidence:
(1) When the Russian Party investigates someone, it is usually a crock of shit and goes no where (e.g., Benghazi). They use investigations themselves to punish people, rather than to find the guilty.
(2) When Dems investigate, someone goes to jail. Plame, Iran-contra, Watergate....
I'd speculate the reason for this is that the Dems have a constituency that is less villagers with pitchforks, the Russian party gets together at a convention and encourages everyone to scream "Lock her up" to unsubstantiated allegations of conduct that isn't even illegal.
