Trump Could Be Charged With Conspiracy To Defraud The United States

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Former US attorney Paul Butler said on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House that if Trump knew about the Wikileaks hacked emails and used them in his campaign, he could be part of a conspiracy against the United States.

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Butler said while discussing Mueller’s questions for Trump, “He’s been focused on obstruction. To be sure, many of the questions are about obstruction. But he’s talking about Roger Stone and Wikileaks and whether President Trump knew that Mr. Stone had these connections with the Russians. Again, Trump is right. Collusion by itself is not a crime. You know what is a crime? Conspiracy to defraud the United States. Mueller’s already charged people with that. If trump knew about these Wikileaks leaks and he used those to help his campaign, that’s not a good look for him.”

Mueller is looking at collusion, but collusion by itself is not a crime. It is the conspiracy and the fruits of collusion that are the crimes. It is possible that if Trump is removed from office, he could be charged with conspiring against his own country. The Special Counsel is looking at Trump for potential obstruction of justice, but it is the why Trump obstructed justice that could lead to criminal charges.

It is easy to see a scenario where Trump ends up criminally charged. Donald Trump would be Richard Nixon if Nixon conspired with the Soviet Union to win reelection in 1972. The potential for treasonous crimes against own country places Trump at a whole different level than Nixon.

Lock him may be more than chant. It might be Trump’s future.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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