Seth AbramsonVerified account

1) Pundits are now saying yesterday's news shows the Trump campaign was willing to—and wanted to—collude with Russia, but not that they DID.

2) They misunderstand the law. They think if Don Jr.'s June '16 meeting with a Kremlin agent wasn't itself criminal, there was no collusion.

3) Russia's cyberattack on us was an *ongoing crime* (actually, literally *thousands* of individual felonies) that stretched for 6+ months.

4) Trump, to the best of our knowledge, learned of these ongoing *thousands* of crimes on August 17, 2017—when his security briefings began.

5) A key element of these thousands of felonies stretching from June to Election Day and beyond was that they—AND their culprit—stay secret.

6) An "Accessory After the Fact" doesn't participate in the crime itself, but after (a) learning of it, (b) participates in its concealment.

7) Trump and his top aides were all legally ON NOTICE that Russia was engaging in thousands of felonies against America on August 17, 2017.

8) After August 17, ANY act of concealment Trump's team KNEW would help keep Russia's thousands of felonies against us secret IS collusion.

9) Trump's foreign policy chief—Sessions—had a secret September 8th meeting with a Russian agent he then perjured himself about? Collusion.

10) Trump's top presidential advisor—Kushner—had multiple phone calls and meetings with Russians he illegally failed to disclose? Collusion.

11) Trump *personally* tried to keep the FBI from further investigating Mike Flynn's contact with the Russians on sanctions? Also collusion.

12) Manafort's lies after his firing? Collusion. Mike Flynn's lies? Collusion. Trump's lies about staffers' contact with Russia? Collusion.

13) Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort hide that Russia had secretly-acquired Clinton intel in June 2016? Collusion, collusion, and collusion.

14) Don Jr.'s story making it clear his dad KNEW about the June meeting? Collusion for both of them. Them lying about it now? Collusion too.

15) And every time I've written "collusion" in this thread I'm saying CRIME—and the crime is, Accessory After the Fact to Russia's felonies.

16) I keep explaining that THIS is why the media needs to nail down what Trump knew and when. And THIS is why Trump denies Russian hacking.

17) The SECOND we know on what DATE Trump learned of Russia's crimes, EVERY lie he or his top aides told afterward is COLLUSION and a CRIME.

18) THIS, then, is the explanation for our national mystery, i.e. why won't Trump ACCEPT the IC finding that Russia meddled in our election?

19) *Bad TV pundits* claim it's because Trump doesn't want to lose his legitimacy. But if THAT were true, he'd deny that *anyone* hacked us.

20) Instead, ALL Trump says—and says consistently—is that he PERSONALLY doesn't *believe* that the RUSSIANS committed thousands of felonies.