If anybody thinks Jeffrey Toobin is defending Trump this article should disabuse them of that notion

The release of Donald Trump, Jr.,’s e-mails regarding a meeting last June with a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, show that, contrary to President Trump’s previous statements, representatives of his campaign were apparently willing to accept help from the Russians in order to win the election. This is obviously a political problem for the President and his Administration, but is it also evidence of criminal behavior?
“Collusion” is not a legal term in this context, nor is it a crime. Neither is listening to outlandish tales, even from foreigners. But Trump, Jr.,’s e-mails do raise questions of possible criminal behavior, starting with violations of campaign-finance laws. Federal law prohibits American campaign officials from soliciting from foreign governments “anything of value . . . in connection with” an election. In the meeting with Veselnitskaya, did Trump, Jr., or Jared Kushner, the candidate’s son-in-law, or Paul Manafort, then Trump’s campaign manager, who were also in attendance, solicit anything of value? The e-mails don’t clearly answer that question. But it is possible that they solicited information–perhaps specific information, relating to, say, e-mail accounts associated with Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the campaign, might conclude that such a solicitation could constitute a crime, and he might ask a grand jury to return an indictment on that theory. (The possibility of a prosecution based on an “anything-of-value” theory has been explored in greater detail by Robert Bauer, President Obama’s White House counsel, and by Rick Hasen, an election-law specialist, in several posts.)

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/are-donald-trump-jrs-e-mails-about-meeting-with-a-russian-lawyer-evidence-of-a-crime


Oh, Lock Them Up.