TPM Josh Marshall - "The Puzzle Comes Into View" (re collusion)

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-puzzle-comes-into-view

By JOSH MARSHALL Published JULY 11, 2017 8:25 AM

With last night’s report in the Times, I think we are officially past the point of the ‘was there collusion’ question. There was. The President’s son now has the barest argument that he tried to get damaging information about Hillary Clinton which he was told came from a Russian government campaign to help his father become president, only to find it was insufficient.

To me this seems like a generally meaningless and highly implausible distinction and claim. We are now into the territory not of ‘was there collusion or contact’ but how substantial was it. Given the circumstantial evidence, it’s always seemed probable to me that there were contacts or perhaps winks and nods somewhere. There were just too many points of contact between Trumpland and people tied to the Russian government for their not to be. But was it mere encouragement and heads ups, or did it go deeper. Was there – to use that word everyone resists – an actual conspiracy involving members of the Trump entourage and members of the Russian government?

I was looking over my notes this morning. The timeline of events with the Don Jr news manages to be considerably more damning than that news on its own. I’m going to write those notes up and try to publish them later this morning.

For now a few thoughts.

If we posit a relationship between Trump or his advisors and people in the orbit of the Russian government prior to 2016, would a critical overture be made to Don Jr through a lawyer unknown to Trump? That raises several questions in my mind.

snip - more at the link.

(I think the drip will become a torrent very soon)