In an otherwise fine editorial (“Gerrymandering biggest threat to democracy,” April 29, 2019) The Columbian repeated the mischaracterization by the attorney general, stating “The report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller found that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia during the 2016 election . . .”
That is incorrect. The report (available online for free) clearly states that investigators did not investigate “collusion,” but rather the crime of conspiracy. To prove conspiracy they needed to find irrefutable evidence of an agreement between the Trump campaign and the Russian government sufficient to prove a charge of conspiracy. They failed to find proof of that agreement. Mueller’s investigators found: 1) That the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to elect Trump by hacking and distributing stolen information;
2) Trump’s campaign “expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts”;
3) Russian efforts coincided with over 100 contacts between Trump campaign officials and individuals with ties to the Russian government;
