The reality is that those campaign officials were being set up. One might call it entrapment.
Your focus continues to be defending Trump from his antagonists rather than what the Russians were up to. The point of the investigation is the latter. The point of the investigation is the latter. The point of the investigation is the latter.
Trump sees the investigation as an attack on him. You see the investigation as an attack on him. Rather than an investigation of Russian doings. Trump cares about Trump's skin, both real and imagined. The Russian activity against the US, who cares. Likewise you, seemingly.
The object of the investigation is not criminal prosecution although it has produced criminal charges. Those criminal prosecutions are ancillary, not the objective. If the investigation did not have criminal prosecution powers, setting up someone to provoke activity that would open up investigative channels would be a natural, reasonable approach to finding out how the Russian actors operate, aka getting at the truth. It would be valuable. In a criminal prosecution, entrapment is not cricket. If there is no criminal prosecution, entrapment, if it exists, is moot.
I care about the US learning about the tricks and techniques of Russian interference. Your singular focus on entrapment would seem to be all about protecting Trump from prosecution, since that's the only arena in which it matters. But prosecution would not happen in any event.
They were subtly maneuvered into doing and saying things that months later became evidence to support the claim that Trump was colluding with Putin.
At this point, it hardly matters. Trump, as a result of his reaction to the investigation, has accumulated well more than enough fodder to satisfy his antagonists, more than they ever could have dreamed of. His performance in Helsinki, by itself, is sufficient to support an impeachment were anyone so inclined. And he's not going to be criminally prosecuted for collusion, entrapment or no entrapment. Seems to me that your hobby horse about possible entrapment in collusion is well beside the point, hardly warranting such a focus. I don't find it constructive. It may be satisfying to you, but not of utility. |
