People are juxtaposing Trump's June 27, 2016 rally comments calling for Russia to "find the 30,000 emails that are missing" with the indictment's statement that GRU agents began spearphishing Hillary's personal email account that night. (1/)
Here's the specific wording of the indictment: "on or about July 27, 2016, the Conspirators attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third-party provider and used by Clinton’s personal office." (2/)
It seems clear that the indictment is trying to make the connection with language like "after hours" and "first time." But even Trump publicly saying he wants the Russians to do something and them doing it isn't collusion in any real sense. (3/)
It's bad, of course -- Trump shouldn't have been asking foreign governments to hack his opponent. But collusion in any real sense would require a quid pro quo. This was a typical idiotic Trump bloviation. (4/)
Now, if Trump had coordinated behind the scenes with the Russians to hack Hillary, that would be one thing. But to publicly joke about his hopes for Russian interference isn't coordination or a quid pro quo. (END)
Sorry, this should say "July 27."
