On spin:
Alexandra Erin
@alexandraerin
So, Mueller just got an indictment against 13 Russian nationals (people) and 3 Russian entities (organizations) on election interference.
What's this going to do to the rightwing narrative that there was no interference, or if it was, it was for/by Clinton?
Little to nothing.
When you start with a conclusion, the conclusion becomes evidence. They started with the conclusion that there is no Rusisan interference, no fraud or cheating by Trump, and so every time new evidence is uncovered, that evidence is dismissed.
"There's never been any evidence of illegal collusion!"
"We have found this evidence."
"That can't be real because there's no evidence of illegal collusion."
"We also have this other evidence."
"If this were real, we'd have seen evidence before."
"And this."
"No evidence!"
Thoughts and prayers won't stop bullets, but the faith-based approach to facts, legal realities, and scandals is as strong as ever. To those who believe there is no evidence of Russian interference or GOP corruption, believing is seeing. Anything contradictory is fake.
The very idea that such a thing as irrefutable proof could exist plays into this. The fact is, people can refute anything they care to refute. "You can lead a horse to water, etc." As long as they keep refuting it, it's treated as an open question, with two sides.
The very idea that such a thing as irrefutable proof could exist plays into this. The fact is, people can refute anything they care to refute. "You can lead a horse to water, etc." As long as they keep refuting it, it's treated as an open question, with two sides.
But the good news is Mueller doesn't have to convince the Top Conservatives On Twitter of anything. His finding of facts was persuasive enough to a grand jury, the actual legal authority, for them to return an indictment.
Now, the next talking point is that "COLLUSION IS NOT A CRIME!" Which is true. In the same sense that being evil is not a crime. But specific actions that may be described as wrong, evil, or collusion are crimes. Renato Mariotti goes into that here.
twitter.com/renato_mariotti/status/964568405683703808
The charge is not "interfering in our election" because while it might intuitively seem like that should be a crime, trying to formulate a legal definition that could be readily applied and would not be catastrophically broad or vague is tricky.
Rather, the charges refer to specific illegal acts, acts of fraud, deception, and concealment, many of them intended to specifically circumvent other laws.
It's not illegal to drive a car. It's not illegal to pick up a friend. It's not illegal to drive to or away from a bank.
But if you're the getaway driver for a bank robber, you'll be charged with specific criminal acts that apply to the situation anyway.
(Similarly, it's not harassment to just walk down a sidewalk, send an email, or make a phone call. But if you're following someone around, spamming them, making threats or repeated unwanted conduct...)
And now we come to the next big talking point that's going around. Or rather, it comes to us. "This proves there was no collusion on Trump's side!"
It does not. In fact, it could not prove that.
From the beginning, Donald Trump's legal defense strategy in the court of public opinion has been to pretend that "hasn't been proven yet" means "there's no proof" means "it's been disproven".
And his followers eat that up.
They've been singing the same tune all along. "If Mueller's going after staffers and not Trump, he's got nothing on Trump." "Indicting business partners and not Trump? Too bad, liberals! Trump is innocent!"
Now the net expands to include Russian actors.
They sing the same song.
The line they're clinging to is "Some defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign."
In their mind, this clears Trump.
But it's just describing one operation.
We already know about direct, bilateral contacts between Russia and Trump campaign figures (including his own family members, in his own headquarters!)
It's entirely possible this "unwitting" contact was coordinated at both ends. Plausible deniability. Why would Mueller accept at face value that it's unwitting, if it might not be? Because that's one less thing he has to prove for these charges.
And if you've noticed, nothing gets under Trump's collar faster or gets him to mouth off louder than insinuating that he wasn't in the loop on anything related to his campaign.
Trump's lawyers will be sure to play up the "unwitting" aspect, which is sure to drive a wedge between them and him.
If you think this one set of indictments is Mueller closing the book on Russia, ask yourself why he's still squeezing Manafort and Gates.
If Mueller accomplished nothing else today (and he accomplished a lot), he's got Trump's MAGA heads on Twitter repeating again and again that Trump is #unwitting. Keep it up! You might just goad him into a full confession.
Donald Trump: Witless for the Prosecution.
You want to talk about a positive indicator? I have never before had more Trumpites on my threads about Donald Trump and his legal woes as this one. It's not many, just a couple, but that's before the thread has grown legs and gone viral yet.
They are worried.
Scared.
I'm not one to suggest that every red ball cap on here is a Russian bot or a paid operative of anyone. They really aren't. They don't have to be. The relatively small number of shills call the tune and they get a ton of real people to dance to it.
And oh boy, are the defensive. Are they frightened. They see the net drawing tighter.
This is bad news in Trumpland.
Count the hours before Trump tweets that he's been vindicated by the #unwitting line. The longer it takes, the more worried he and his lawyers actually are.
And we've already got at least one guilty plea entered. That "unwitting" line isn't going to protect anyone in the Trump regime if someone flips and starts naming their contacts.
And all of this is happening as the loser king of dirt and empty spaces flies off to another lazy weekend in his golden palace in Florida.