re: #241 Sir John Barron

The solicitation came from Donald J. Trump asking Russia to hack Clinton. Everything else flows from that indisputable statement uttered on television and repeated ad nauseum in reruns. That was the action; this was a response by and through intermediaries.

That Trump Jr. thought this was the real deal and that they could have the goods on Clinton shows his own intent to further a criminal act. We’re talking about conspiracy to commit various crimes (where intent is what matters, even if the ultimate act is not achieved).

The equivalent is Junior wanted to go catch fish by fishing. He went on a boat and spent the day on the water with his rod and reel, but never caught a fish. That doesn’t mean Junior didn’t go fishing. He can’t say that he went sunning when he was on the boat and had the rod and reel. He went fishing, but didn’t achieve the goal of catching a fish.

That Trump Jr is idiotic enough to think that this somehow absolves him is actually staggering to me. That his lawyers thought this was a good idea (or even knew what he was up to) is staggering. Much more likely, given what we know of the Trump approach to lawsuits, is that Junior went ahead and released this without his lawyers knowing and that his lawyers are probably all like WTF Donny?!

Any lawyer worth their salt would make sure their client shuts up ahead of any kind of potential criminal prosecution to avoid implicating themselves in one or more crimes. Trump doesn’t know or care.

They should.

Also, Junior has opened the door for prosecutors to go after so much more about Junior’s background - everything from bank statements to emails, texts, phone calls, etc. All of his communications. All of it.