Your Turn: Was the Trump Tower Meeting ‘Opposition Research’ or Collusion?

What’s the story?

• President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday that the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Russians and Trump campaign officials - including his son Donald Trump Jr. - was to “get information on an opponent.”

Was it “totally legal”?

• Judicial experts have averred that Trump Jr. could be in legal jeopardy. Federal campaign finance law says it’s illegal for a foreign national to "directly or indirectly, make a contribution or a donation of money or other thing of value"—“other thing of value” may include obtaining “information on an opponent.”
• "Hard to see how there is not a serious case here of solicitation. Trump Jr. appears to have knowledge of the foreign source and is asking to see it," Rick Hasen, an expert in campaign finance law, wrote on his blog last year.

"Such information can be considered a 'thing of value' for purposes of the campaign finance law."

But was it collusion?

• Because the meeting was a conscious effort by the Trump campaign to work with Russian officials to obtain information that could be used to sway an election, The New Yorker has called the gathering “at minimum…a case of attempted collusion.”

“The tweet indicates that Trump’s defense will continue to be that this attempt at collusion failed – ‘it went nowhere’ - and that, even if it had succeeded, it would have been ‘totally legal and done all the time.’ It is unclear why, if the meeting was entirely proper, it was important for the president to declare ‘I did not know about it!’ or to tell the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, to ‘stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now.’

What do you think?

In July 2017, Trump tweeted: "Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don Jr. attended in order to get info on an opponent. That's politics!"

Is it? Was the meeting in Trump Tower “totally legal” opposition research? Was it a case of successful or attempted collusion? Is attempted collusion a crime? Should it be? Hit Take Action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: oversnap / iStock)