How we know Robert Mueller has Donald Trump nailed

| 6:04 pm EDT July 31, 2018
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Rudy Giuliani made such a mess of Donald Trump’s legal prospects yesterday, and in such spectacularly buffoonish fashion, the most crucial thing he revealed is being largely overlooked. Yes, he admitted that Team Trump held a planning meeting about the Russia meeting. But it’s what he said next which reveals that Robert Mueller has Donald Trump nailed.

Not only did Rudy feel compelled to spill the beans about this planning meeting (before incoherently trying to walk it back hours later), he also announced that Rick Gates was part of this meeting. Why does this matter? Gates cut a plea deal with Mueller back in February. The way these things work is that Gates had to immediately reveal everything he knew about everyone involved. That means Gates told Mueller all about the entire Trump Tower saga a long time ago.

Even as Michael Cohen vows to testify that Donald Trump signed off in advance on the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians, the question has been who or what could corroborate his story. Now we know that Rick Gates has already testified about this to Robert Mueller. This means that Cohen’s testimony won’t need corroboration; Cohen will be the corroboration. Two eyewitnesses, neither of whom have any particular loyalty to each other, both telling the same story? Ask any prosecutor, and they’ll tell you it’s a recipe for a conviction.

So it’s not surprising to see Donald Trump tweeting this morning that “Collusion is not a crime.” He knows he’s been nailed for it, so he has no choice left but to spin his actions as having somehow been legal. If Trump and Russia had colluded to throw Hillary a surprise birthday party, that wouldn’t have been a crime. But Trump and Russia colluded to try to alter the outcome of the presidential election, and that involved several identifiable felonies. In any case, “collusion” isn’t a proper legal term. It’s time to start calling this what it is: treason.