emptywheel

The story still won't fly. Foreign contacts aren't criminal.

No, it's not at all. Which is why Mueller wants to know why Mike Flynn lied about what he was trying to do with Sergey Kislyak.

Because they're a bunch of angry old men playing gotcha with each other. "Aha, he talked to The Communists, lock him up".

Possible. Or possible that because Trump's people engaged in quid pro quo discussions, they wanted to hide the delivery of the quo. That's what Mueller is trying to understand.

The quo is so elusive it's got to be something huge, like a green light for Russian bases to pop up overnight in Chicago and Dallas.

That's nonsense.

Well nothing sensible has come up, so I'm broadening the search. What quo would be illegal anyway? Any policy changes (not that anything good for Russia materialized) seem to be fair game for debates and negotiations.

I just explained this. The policy changes themselves would (generally) not be illegal. But they would be if Trump made them BECAUSE he was paying off the Russians for helping him in the election. That's why the lies are important.

Did anything come of his efforts?

"Attempted" Murder is still a CRIME