Was There Ever Any Evidence of Collusion?

There’s a lot of celebrating and ball-spiking going on in Trump World today. The claims of total exoneration and vindication are plentiful, to say the least.

Of course, we heard from Trump on a nearly daily basis that there was NO COLLUSION! It was always a hoax, totally fabricated by the Deep State and those Dastardly Democrats in an attempt to reverse an election.

The Trump narrative was created and the Trump faithful ate it up without question. We have all been in heated debates about this during the past couple of years. And they continue even today.

So, were they right? Does the Mueller Report now, according to AG Barr’s summary, stating that there was no conspiracy or coordination, prove that it was all a hoax to begin with?

“The Special Counsel’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”

AG Barr’s Summary of the Mueller Report

Is that “case closed”? Were we all crazy to even think there was a possibility of collusion? Were we all duped by those Angry Democrats?

First, as I have previously stated, I don’t believe the summary statement by Barr is going to cut it, no matter how much Trump and the Republicans rail on about it. If anything, it further diminishes my respect and faith in any of these people who will so blatantly misrepresent what is happening. Barr is a political appointee who works directly for and at the pleasure of Trump. He has made previous statements about the investigation that indicate a bias even before taking the position that Trump awarded him. I’d like to be able to take the word of the Department of Justice Attorney General, but we all know that it’s foolish to be naive about such things.

We need a full disclosure of the report and testimony from Mueller to answer questions that still linger.

Yet, still, Trump and his ever so vocal supporters are claiming there was never any evidence of collusion and the entire investigation was a total witch hunt.

We’ve gone through all of this before, but I think it’s important to do so again. To all of those people who claim there was never any reason for an investigation into the Trump campaign, I would ask the following questions:

• It doesn’t concern you one little bit that so many people surrounding Trump had so many connections to Russia?

• It doesn’t concern you one little bit that most of them lied about their various contacts with Russians during the campaign?

• It doesn’t concern you one little bit that Manafort shared polling data with a Russian oligarch known to have direct connections to the Russian government (as most all Russian oligarch do)?

• It doesn’t concern you one little bit that Stone practically bragged about working with Wikileaks?

• It doesn’t concern you one little bit that the Trump team changed the Republican platform in Russia’s favor during the convention?

• It doesn’t concern you one little bit that Don Jr. and other high ranking members of the campaign met with a Russian to obtain dirt on Hillary (And then Trump dictated the lie about it)?

• It doesn’t concern you one little bit that Trump was negotiating a multi-million dollar real estate deal in Moscow all during the campaign, clearly a conflict of interest?

• It doesn’t concern you one little bit that Trump lied about those very negotiations?

• It doesn’t concern you one little bit that Trump has stuck up for and even publicly took the word of Putin over our own intelligence services?

• It doesn’t concern you one little bit that Trump has met with Putin privately and no other American has any idea what was discussed?

• It doesn’t concern you one little bit that Trump fired Comey with his own stated purpose of ending the Russian investigation?

• It doesn’t concern you one little bit that he then bragged about that to a couple of Russian Diplomats shortly thereafter?

These are all known, actual facts. This is the information I based my opinions and analysis on from the beginning…not on speculative, dubious claims from Trump and his sycophants. These are all some of the unanswered questions that we need full explanations to. Barr’s summary addresses none of them.

Do any of these things, or even all of them together, prove that there was a conspiracy or coordination (collusion) with the Russians? No, they don’t, but they certainly raise a lot of red flags that would make any reasonable, intellectually honest person agree that the situation should be looked into.

If you still claim none of this warranted the investigation, would you say the same if all of these things were about Clinton (either one) and his/her campaign?

If you state that you wouldn’t think twice about any of these things if it were Clinton, and you would dismiss them the same way you are with Trump, I’d say you’re a damn liar. And you know I’m right about that.