President Trump has gotten a lot of mileage out of tweeting that there was no collusion between his campaign and Russia during the presidential election. Naturally, with a new round of indictments announced by the special counsel (the first to not include people who directly worked for Trump’s campaign), President Trump is once again playing a familiar tune.
In a message posted to Twitter, President Trump acknowledged that Russia interfered in the election, but not in any way he or his team could have known about, or something. “Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President,” Trump wrote. “The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong – no collusion!”
Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong – no collusion!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2018
In Mueller’s latest indictment, representatives of the Internet Research Agency, a hacking outfit operated in Russia, are charged with committing identity theft, money laundering, contacting the Trump campaign (while hiding their connection to Russia), and operating social media accounts all with the intent of Trump being elected president.
Yet while the indictment doesn’t specifically point to any wrongdoing by Trump campaign members, it also never mentions collusion, so it doesn’t prove or disprove collusion in the larger scope of the probe. Of course, it certainly appears that a Russian propaganda outfit was doing as much as it could to aid the Trump campaign. And Trump, as always, is tweeting through it.