Courtroom-quality evidence that Trump Sr. KNEW about collusion

Throughout the 2016 campaign, both the right and the left pummeled Hillary Clinton for having a private email server -- even though many of the people who learned to loathe her probably don't know what the word "server" means in Computer-ese. Millions of people still believe that she "bleached" 30,000 emails, a charge which Donald Trump continues to make. In fact, the FBI recovered the majority of those emails and found them to be personal and innocuous, just as her lawyers had maintained.

Isn't it ironic? We now know that the emails sent and received by Team Trump contain the real dirt. An administration born of the email may die by the email.

This post won't dissect each line of that exchange in a search for criminality -- although we should note that Donnie Jr. has given us yet more proof that Jared Kushner deserves prison for lying on his security forms. Right now, I'd like to direct your attention to the same issue that drove the previous post: Where was Trump the elder? What did he know and when did he know it?

First, let us repeat an under-discussed fact mentioned previously: On June 9, 2016, when that Russian lawyer met in Trump Tower with Junior, Jared and Manafort, Donald Trump the elder was in New York City and spent the night in that building. That day, he and Manafort met with a host of Republican bigwigs in the nearby Four Seasons Hotel. In other words, Trump Sr. and Manafort spent much of the day together.

Chronology now becomes very important.

That June 9 meeting grew out of an email exchange with Rob Goldstone. The earliest email in this chain was sent on June 3. I direct your attention to this damning excerpt from Goldstone's letter:

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.

What do you think is the best way to handle this information and would you be able to speak to Emin about it directly?

I can also send this info to your father via Rhona, but it is ultra sensitive so wanted to send to you first.

"Emin" is the famous Azerbaini singer managed by Goldstone; "Aras" is Aras Agalarov, the Russian billionaire and Putin crony. Clearly, they were in on this whole thing. "Rhona" is Donald Trump Sr.'s longtime secretary Rhona Graff; anyone hoping to contact him had to go through her.

The letter clearly indicates that the elder Trump was to be made witting. Again: The meeting on the night of June 9 took place in Trump Tower, on a floor directly below Donald Trump's residence, on a night when he was sleeping in his own bed in New York City, after a day he had spent with Paul Manafort.

Back to the chronology: On June 6, Donald Trump Jr. emails his cell phone number to Goldstone; it is arranged for Junior to speak to Emin Agalarov after the latter has completed a concert. It is fair -- very fair -- to presume that the gist of the "sensitive information" about Hillary was conveyed during that telephone conversation. After the call, Don Jr. sends this message: "Rob thanks for the help."

Nothing in the email exchange suggests that the candidate was being kept out of the loop -- in fact, the "Rhona" reference makes clear that he was to be in the loop, despite the unpersuasive contrary claim made by Trump's lawyer. 

The next day, June 7, Junior tersely sets up a meeting with the Russian lawyer. After some wrangling over schedules, they decide to hold the meeting on June 9, 4 pm.

You know what else happened on the night of June 7? Donald Trump the elder made a speech after a big win in New Jersey. In that speech, he made a series of demonstrably false claims about Hillary Clinton accusing her of carrying out "corrupt dealings." (In the video embedded above, the relevant portion starts around the 7 minute mark.)

Secretary Clinton even did all of the work on a totally illegal private server. Something about how she's getting away with this folks nobody understands.

The first sentence is patently false: The server was not illegal and none of the emails recovered by the FBI provide evidence of corrupt "work." The second sentence is garbled in a typically Trumpian fashion. To me, it seems obvious that he felt that he had learned something that "nobody understands."

He went on:

Designed to keep her corrupt dealings out of the public record, putting the security of the entire country at risk and a President in a corrupt system is totally protecting her - not right. I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons. I think you're going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. I wonder if the press will want to attend, who knows.

You may recall wondering about the meaning of that threat. I recall it. I fretted.

On Monday (June 13), there was no major speech. Throughout that week, Trump had nothing new to say about the Clintons beyond his familiar guff.

Let us review:

On June 6, Donald Jr. spoke to one or both of the Agalarovs, who supposedly had major dirt on Hillary Clinton. the "Rhona" reference (earlier in the email chain) clearly indicates that the candidate was also supposed to receive this information.

On June 7, Donald Trump promised to give a "major" speech the next Monday in which the world would learn important new information about Hillary Clinton.

On June 9, Junior, Kushner and Manafort meet with a Kremlin-connected lawyer. We still don't know exactly what went on. (Donald Trump Jr. and the lawyer have told wildly incompatible stories.) But we know that there was some sort of breakdown during that meeting; the Russians did not deliver the promised goods.

On June 13, Donald Trump does not give the promised major speech.

The events of those four dates are damning. I think that we have courtroom-quality evidence that Donald Trump the elder was perfectly witting of his campaign's collusion with the Russians.

By the way: On June 14, the Washington Post published that first, history-making story about the Russian government's hack of the DNC.

Russian government hackers penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee and gained access to the entire database of opposition research on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to committee officials and security experts who responded to the breach.

The intruders so thoroughly compromised the DNC’s system that they also were able to read all email and chat traffic, said DNC officials and the security experts.

The intrusion into the DNC was one of several targeting American political organizations. The networks of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were also targeted by Russian spies, as were the computers of some Republican political action committees, U.S. officials said. But details on those cases were not available.

Gosh. Could the DNC hack have come up during that meeting at Trump Tower on June 9? Ya think?

Trump knew. He knew.

Added note: When I started writing this post, I thought that I would be the first to note the true meaning of the Trump speech embedded above. Now that I'm ready to post, I find that others have published first, including Josh Marshall. To paraphrase the Good Book: "The race goes not to the swiftest -- but that's the way to bet."