Thread by @SethAbramson

"A Man Who's Been Defrauding People for Four Decades Is Too Stupid to Collude With Russia By Simply Agreeing to a Pro-Russia Policy for Money"

This is the last argument Trump dead-enders have. Pathetic—and a sign that, while a ways off, the end is coming. nationalreview.com/2018/02/donald…

2/ Trump knew his Russia policy—a *unilateral* dropping of sanctions—was worth hundreds of billions to Putin. If he developed his policy in conjunction with business dealings with the Agalarovs, he's done.

It'd also mean he *knew* he was paying Russia for its pro-Trump hacking.

3/ That's it. That's how simple "collusion" is. I summarized it in a tweet. And it'd take no effort on Trump's part besides—as is alleged—telling Putin he'd run for POTUS with a pro-Russia policy when they spoke in Moscow in '13. We already know they talked U.S.-Russia relations.

4/ We know, too, that everyone in Trump's entourage left that weekend in Moscow in 2013 believing Trump would run for president—and indeed that Trump began teasing a run just weeks later. So it's no stretch whatsoever to think he told Putin when they talked U.S.-Russia relations.

5/ Remember that the deal Trump signed in Moscow in November 2013 was with Putin's real estate developer, banker, and permits man. The Trumps are on record saying you can't build in Moscow without the Kremlin's blessing. So a promised run while Putin was giving him a tower? Easy.

6/ The problem that situation creates is that if you know your Russia policy is a *gift*—literally, a gift to, rather than a negotiation with, the Russians—the second you discover they're committing crimes against the U.S. you have to withdraw that gift or you're abetting crimes.

7/ Trump dead-enders like Goldberg—and he can claim to be otherwise, but if, at this point, you're saying Trump can't keep a secret if it earns him a presidency and hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, you're a Trumpist—are calling intricate what Trump does *daily*.

8/ And do we have evidence Trump has tried to keep his phone call with Putin secret, but poorly? Yes, we do. He first admitted it, and then, after he announced his run, said he spoke with "top people" in Moscow but "couldn't say more." A stupid enough criminal for you, Goldberg?

9/ The fact is, it takes *zero* sophistication to agree to finally run for president, and to have a Russia policy that's a gift to Putin, as payment for past Russian largesse and a downpayment on future deals.

It's the sort of con or grift Trump was born for—and it's *simple*.

10/ It's not like Trump has to *figure out how to launder the money*. He has people to do that. He has fixers. All he has to say is "yes" to Putin during a phone call we already know he had with him, during which we already know they discussed the future of U.S.-Russia relations.

CONCLUSION/ Let me put this simply, from a defense attorney's viewpoint: if Trump wanted to collude with Russia, it was an *un-fuck-up-able proposition*: Trump literally had to have *one phone call* and then *not* shout "I'm colluding!" from the rooftops. That's all he had to do.

NOTE/ Who's believed to know what Trump told Putin? Per longtime Trump confidant Tom Arnold, Chuck LaBella.

Who did Trump's fixer, Michael Cohen, send to Stormy Daniels' lawyer to set up a "catch-and-kill" deal that would keep LaBella quiet? According to the NYT, Chuck LaBella.

NOTE2/ How recently has Trump lied about when he decided to run for POTUS? *Within the last 10 days*. He said publicly he'd no idea he'd run for POTUS in 2014—and within minutes a HuffPost reporter was posting a HuffPost story from *January 2014* in which Trump implies he'll run.

NOTE3/ So let's try *this* theory on for size: Trump is a bad criminal who has left *massive* breadcrumbs indicating his crimes, but the media is so terrified of getting the story wrong—thus losing millions of GOP viewers—that they've been under-reporting what we know for months.