Beyond wild allegations, what's clearly true about Trump and Russia is disturbing

Updated by Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesiasmatt@vox.com Jan 11, 2017, 10:00am EST

With reports that the Russian government may have dirt that they are using to blackmail Donald Trump setting the political world ablaze, it’s worth being clear about two things. One is that the content of these reports is unverified and, likely, unverifiable. What’s more, to the extent that any of it could be verified, it’s inconceivable that the Intelligence Community would publicly reveal the kind of human or signals intelligence sources that could verify it. So as far as the public knows, we are never really going to know.

The other is that the Russian blackmail theory is composed of two sub-elements, both of which are clearly true based on publicly available information. One is that Donald Trump has a curious and wrongheaded affection for the present government of Russia and its foreign policy. The other is that Donald Trump has engaged in scandalous conduct, the public revelation of which would cause a rational person to reduce their opinion of him.

Allegations now floating around range from the salacious (Russia has Trump sex tapes made at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow) to the serious (using intermediaries, Trump and Russia agreed to an explicit quid pro quo in which Russia would give him electoral help and in exchange he would shift US foreign policy). None of this is proven, and much of it is unprovable (if the FSB has a secret sex tape, how are we going to find it?) but the truth is that these kind of allegations, though difficult to resist, simply shouldn’t matter much compared to what’s in the public record.

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http://www.vox.com/2017/1/11/14232666/trump-russia-allegations