Giuliani And Trump ‘Misleading’ When They Say Collusion Is Not A Crime, Law Professor Says

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Publish Date:
July 31, 2018
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USA Today
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Summary

The word collusion gets thrown around a lot these days. But it seems not everyone is on the same page when it comes to defining it.

The term began to be bandied about as evidence of Russian election meddling became public. When the U.S. intelligence community concluded Putin tried to swing the election against Hillary Clinton – and as members of the Trump team were caught lying about Russian contacts – people began to wonder if there had been collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents.

While there may not be a crime called “collusion” that applies, as Giuliani says, Stanford University law professor David Sklansky called that argument misleading.

“It’s true that there’s no crime called collusion, but collusion can be a crime, depending on the circumstances,” Sklansky told USA TODAY. “There’s a crime called conspiracy, and some kinds of collusion amount to illegal conspiracies.”

A conspiracy is illegal if people work together to commit a crime or to defraud the United States government, Sklansky said. According to case law, a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. involves the use of “deceit to prevent a government agency from doing its job,” he said.

Mueller cited such a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. in his indictment of alleged Russian hackers, Sklansky said.

Sklansky also points out that the president is not subject to the same standard as a criminal prosecution. Because impeachment is a political proceeding brought by Congress and not a criminal trial, Trump could be impeached on evidence of collusion with the Russians, even if it didn’t meet the legal threshold for a conspiracy charge.

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