Today’s Word: Collusion

Spell it: C-O-L-L-U-S-I-O-N

Define it: secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose • acting in collusion with the enemy (Merriam Webster)

Use it in a sentence: “I think it’s been proven that there’s no collusion.” (President Donald Trump, 16 times in his December 28 interview with the New York Times, and just about every day he’s been in office.)

Give an example: On June 3, 2016, British music publicist Rob Goldstone emailed Donald Trump Jr. offering to connect him with Russian officials who would provide information about Hillary Clinton to the Trump campaign.

“…The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.

This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump—helped along by Aras and Emin….”

Trump Jr.’s response: “If it’s what you say I love it”

The result was a meeting in Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner (Donald Trump’s son-in-law), Paul Manafort (then the campaign chairman) and several Russian officials. Trump Jr. and Kushner have since claimed that they were disappointed that the Russians mostly wanted to talk about an adoption law, rather than potential dirt on the Hillary Clinton campaign. Even if they are telling the truth, which is certainly questionable, the very fact that the meeting happened—in Trump Tower,  and including three top campaign officials, with the express purpose of getting information from the Russian government to use in the campaign—demonstrates collusion.

And the fact that neither this meeting nor numerous other contacts between campaign officials and the Russian government were disclosed, even under oath or in official campaign filings, check off the “secret” and “deceitful purpose” boxes of the collusion definition.

So yes, President Trump, despite your numerous protestations, it’s been clearly proven that there WAS collusion between Russia and your campaign.