General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe difference between Hillary's so-called "collusion" and Trump's alleged "collusion"...
Hillary and the DNC were doing oppo research and they came up with the Steele dossier. Trump and his cohorts were doing oppo research and they came up with Wikileaks stealing emails from Clinton campaign manager and meeting with Russians in Trump Tower to discuss how they could help Trump in his campaign against Clinton.
One side was gathering information on their opponent to use in their campaign. The other side was being assisted by an adversary of our country to defeat his opponent. They attacked our electoral process thru several channels, including social media. There is no evidence that Hillary Clinton met with any Russian operatives to help defeat Trump in specified states.
There is no comparison.
H2O Man
(73,333 posts)It's important to keep in mind when the research began, it was being done to potentially benefit a republican in that party's primaries.
Trump also says the DNC invested in it later, to prepare an excuse for losing. No one thought, in the summer of 2016, that Ms. Clinton might -- or even could -- lose to Trump.
Recommended.
HopeAgain
(4,407 posts)Representing a foreign nation with hostile intentions.
Roland99
(53,342 posts)cilla4progress
(24,589 posts)Manchin on Tapper said it was the equivalent because Steele is not American...
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)the Clinton campaign and DNC were paying a well-known, major, reputable law firm already in the employ of major Democrats and Democratic organizations for services which included opposition research.
There is NO collusion here.
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)The difference is crystal clear.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,789 posts)... almost certainly promises to lift sanctions in exchange for Russian web brigades hacking and interfering with the election.
There may have been blackmail around sexual activities and massive debts. Possibly some erasing of debts and/or gifts of Rossneft stock to sweeten the deal. Carter Page brokered the Rossneft deal, it seems.
Mitch McCONnell surely knew and was coordinating when he said "No judicial confirmations because this is the last year of Obama's Presidency", an unprecedented tactic. And when he blocked informing state electoral boards about the hacking.
By comparison all the Democrats did was a simple standard ordinary one-way receipt of information from a British investigator.
No deals about governing policy (sanctions).
No deals about debts or stock.
No blackmailed deals.
No coordination with sanctioned unfriendly powers.
No information (analytics) sent overseas to unfriendly powers.
No top secret information obtained by hacking (Wikileaks).
No meetings with known Russian operatives (Don Jr).
No high level meetings between retired generals (Flynn), Putin, and third party leaders (Jill Stein).
louis c
(8,652 posts)Opposition research by a private investigator hired by your firm, campaign or company is perfectly legal. That PI can ask questions, follow (in a discrete manner, no stalking), look at public records, and gather information which is willingly given by witnesses.
Illegally obtaining emails is a crime, and receiving them is the same as receiving stolen property.
That's the fucking difference.
PatSeg
(46,804 posts)were unable to answer that question as clearly as you did. Alex Witt asked two people, what was the difference between the Trump campaign doing opposition research in the meeting with Russians last summer and Hillary's campaign paying for the Steele dossier. The answers she got were totally unsatisfactory. Maybe they weren't expecting the question.