--- title: Why President Trump's Collusion Claims Don't Add Up description: Donald Trump has said that "collusion is not a crime" and that he did not know about a campaign meeting with Russians. It doesn't matter. canonical: https://time.com/5361925/donald-trump-collusion-manafort-giuliani-mueller-russia/ author: Martin London article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-09T13:08:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:04.119Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why President Trump's Latest Collusion Claims Don't Add Up og:description: Assessing the "Collusion is not a crime" and "I did not know about it" arguments og:url: https://time.com/5361925/donald-trump-collusion-manafort-giuliani-mueller-russia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4356c986c7b61ae3/6989375c656a3f9628bd52b4/donald-trump-collusion-russia-paul-manafort-giuliani-mueller1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: Donald Trump, collusion, Paul Manafort og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why President Trump's Latest Collusion Claims Don't Add Up twitter:description: Assessing the "Collusion is not a crime" and "I did not know about it" arguments twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4356c986c7b61ae3/6989375c656a3f9628bd52b4/donald-trump-collusion-russia-paul-manafort-giuliani-mueller1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why President Trump's Latest Collusion Claims Don't Add Up > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Rudy Giuliani On His Changing Opinion of Michael Cohen and that He is Not Sure if Collusion is a Crime [Watch (HLS stream): Rudy Giuliani On His Changing Opinion of Michael Cohen and that He is Not Sure if Collusion is a Crime](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yFHC3giQ.m3u8) (0:22)  _Published 2018-07-30. Rudy Giuliani On His Changing Opinion of Michael Cohen and that He is Not Sure if Collusion is a Crime_ by [Martin London](https://time.com/author/martin-london/) ## Martin London Aug 9, 2018 1:08 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Tampa, Florida, on July 31, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Tampa, Florida, on July 31, 2018. Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images by [Martin London](https://time.com/author/martin-london/) ## Martin London Aug 9, 2018 1:08 PM UTC The President and his lawyers are down to the last defense of the indefensible. As the evidence piles up that the President and his son and his son-in-law and his then–campaign manager knowingly solicited unlawful campaign assistance from the Russians — which lawyers for each have denied — team Trump offers up a remarkable Hail Mary: Asserting, as the President’s attorney Rudy Giuliani has said on TV, “[Collusion is not a crime](https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/31/politics/donald-trump-collusion-defense-tweet/index.html).” [The President has tweeted the line](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1024263146008207361). It means, in essence, _Okay, even if we colluded, what’s wrong with that?_ Here’s what’s wrong with that: It is a pathetic wordplay on the fact that the word “collusion” does not appear in the United States Code. It is pathetic because what does appear in the code is words like “[conspiracy against the United States](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/371),” “[misprision of felony](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/4),” “[aiding and abetting](https://www.justice.gov/usam/criminal-resource-manual-2471-18-usc-2),” “[accessory after the fact](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/3),” all of which are related to the following words, which also appear: --- > “” --- The code goes on to say: --- > “” --- [The law defines “solicit”](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/11/300.2) to include to “ask, request, or recommend, explicitly or implicitly”. So the relevant questions are, did the President or his proxies: 1. Request or recommend that a foreign national contribute something of value to his campaign? 2. Agree among each other to do so? (Evidence of potential conspiracy.) 3. Hide that fact from the government after they did it? (Evidence of potential misprision and conspiracy.) 4. Not only fail to report that conduct, but actively deceive the government (and the public) about that? (Evidence of potential misprision and conspiracy, after the fact.) If they did, they are guilty of multiple felonies, whether the word “collusion” appears in the indictment or not. The President’s team — and now [his very own Twitter account](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1026084333315153924) — are pushing the proposition that he knew nothing about the June 9, 2016, meeting between his son Donald Jr., son-in-law [Jared Kushner](http://time.com/5192918/jared-kushner-donald-trump-sales-leadership/) and then–campaign manager [Paul Manafort](http://time.com/5360566/paul-manafort-trial-donald-trump-day-six/), and a contingent of Russians who sought that meeting. (Though, according to [anonymous sources cited by CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/26/politics/michael-cohen-donald-trump-june-2016-meeting-knowledge/index.html) and [NBC](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/cohen-claims-trump-knew-2016-russia-meeting-source-says-n895141?nbc=4), Cohen says then-candidate Trump did; one of Cohen’s lawyers declined to comment on the stories.) But that is irrelevant to the question of whether the President’s trio of trusted representatives were guilty of felonies arising out of that meeting. And the limited evidence that is at this point public seems to be overwhelming: First, in preparation for the meeting, Donald Jr. (as well as Kushner and Manafort) was told in [a series of emails](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/11/us/politics/donald-trump-jr-email-text.html) that a person, at one stage described as “the Russian government attorney,” could supply evidence that would “incriminate” Hillary Clinton. Donald Jr. replied, in part, “I love it.” That is — by itself — a “solicitation” of something of value to the campaign. Second, knowing the purpose of the meeting, all three attended. Simple attendance at the meeting is admissible evidence of conspiracy. Third, [Senate testimony given by a meeting attendee](https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-panel-releases-2-500-pages-of-testimony-on-meeting-between-trump-campaign-officials-and-russians-1526476025) states that at the meeting, the Russians urged that they had information that the Democrats were getting funds from people who, the Russians alleged, had evaded taxes. Donald Jr. then asked the Russians, according to the testimony, what did they have directly on _Hillary_? The Russians allegedly responded, “We gave you the idea.” In effect, this would mean they told the trio, _We got you started with the basic derogatory information on Trump’s opposition, you follow it up and develop it yourself!_ Asking for damning information on Clinton is solicitation of something of value to the campaign in the clearest terms. Fourth, [according to an email included in other Senate testimony](https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Trump%20Jr%20Exhibits%5Fredacted.pdf), just shy of three weeks after the June 9 meeting, the Russians offered to set up a page on the Russian equivalent of Facebook to try and urge the 1.6 million site users who were Russian American voters living in the U.S. to support Trump. The letter says “Paul \[Manafort\] said he would welcome it.” Aside from an admission from Manafort or Donald Jr. or Kushner, or a recording of the meeting itself, a prosecutor could not ask for more direct evidence of “asking for,” “recommending,” “soliciting” Russian aid for a candidate in a federal election. Interestingly, the Facebook idea and Manafort’s response is detailed in an email sent by the promoter of the meeting earlier that month. The note refers to a meeting, and is addressed to, among others: Donald Jr., the head of social media for the Trump campaign and the elder Donald Trump’s secretary. This memo — to those addressees — is the best case, beyond [speculation by Steve Bannon](http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/367238-bannon-zero-chance-that-trump-didnt-know-about-sons-russian) and what media sources are saying Cohen knows, that candidate Trump himself knew of the June meeting. (Though again, that doesn’t matter at all when it comes to potential felony charges against his trusted trio.) And all of this is public. It’s hard not to believe that [Special Counsel Robert Mueller](http://time.com/5355181/trump-sessions-end-russia-probe/) has a lot more evidence than we know about. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5361925/donald-trump-collusion-manafort-giuliani-mueller-russia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5361925/donald-trump-collusion-manafort-giuliani-mueller-russia/"},"headline":"Why President Trump's Latest Collusion Claims Don't Add Up","datePublished":"2018-08-09T13:08:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:49:04.119Z","description":"Assessing the \"Collusion is not a crime\" and \"I did not know about it\" arguments","url":"https://time.com/5361925/donald-trump-collusion-manafort-giuliani-mueller-russia/","keywords":["Law"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4356c986c7b61ae3/6989375c656a3f9628bd52b4/donald-trump-collusion-russia-paul-manafort-giuliani-mueller1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Martin London","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/martin-london/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4356c986c7b61ae3/6989375c656a3f9628bd52b4/donald-trump-collusion-russia-paul-manafort-giuliani-mueller1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump, collusion, Paul Manafort","caption":"Donald Trump, collusion, Paul Manafort","creditText":"Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/law/","name":"Law"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5361925/donald-trump-collusion-manafort-giuliani-mueller-russia/","name":"Why President Trump's Latest Collusion Claims Don't Add Up"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Rudy Giuliani On His Changing Opinion of Michael Cohen and that He is Not Sure if Collusion is a Crime","description":"Rudy Giuliani On His Changing Opinion of Michael Cohen and that He is Not Sure if Collusion is a Crime","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/yFHC3giQ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-30T13:56:50.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yFHC3giQ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5361925/donald-trump-collusion-manafort-giuliani-mueller-russia/","duration":"PT22S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5361925/donald-trump-collusion-manafort-giuliani-mueller-russia/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```