Yesterday evening, it was revealed that not only did Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort take a meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian attorney who claimed to have secret information damaging to Hillary Clinton, but that the three of them had been explicitly told, in advance, that the meeting was "part of Russia and it's government's support for Mr. Trump."
The Trump campaign then went on to arrange that very meeting—de facto evidence that the campaign at the least attempted to collude with the Russian government's efforts. They also hid the evidence of Russia's attempt to collaborate throughout the rest of the campaign, throughout Russian hacking efforts against their Democratic opponents, throughout the FBI and CIA investigations and warnings of Russian actions, throughout the House, Senate, and Justice Department investigations into those actions, revealing them only after being exposed by the press.
A rundown of today's avalanche of events, for those just joining:
• Despite the clear evidence the Trump campaign actively sought supposedly damaging information about Clinton from the Russian government, Donald Jr.'s new criminal attorney immediately left into his new case by declaring there to be "nothing here."
• Then-campaign-manager Paul Manafort, a lobbyist for Russian interests in Ukraine, provided an unusual defense of his participation: He now claims he didn't read the emails introducing the meeting as an initiative by the Russian government.
• Special counsel Robert Mueller will be adding the meeting to his probe. Notably, U.S. officials say details released by Trump Jr. were not previously known by investigators—which confirms that the Trump campaign indeed hid that information despite multiple ongoing intelligence investigations into Russian acts.
• Both of the Russians involved in the story are more acquainted with the elder Donald Trump than with Trump Jr, raising questions as to whether Trump Jr. was the true go-between. There is ample photographic evidence of their past meetings. The Russian lawyer the team met with was acting not just as Russian lobbyist against U.S. sanctions but to defend a Russian company charged with money laundering in a scheme much like those previously linked to Trump properties.
• The revelation of an actual collusion attempt brings Donald Trump's past denials of collusion—as well has own statements on Russian hacking—into sharper focus. While Trump Jr. claims there was no action taken after the June, 2016 meeting, the timeline of subsequent events and campaign actions makes that claim difficult to believe.
• News of actual collusion between campaign and the Russian government also calls into question the actions of Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. Paul Ryan to block public knowledge of the extent of Russian election interference shortly before the elections. At the time, they had each received urgent, classified briefings about the Russian actions that included the warning that they were seeking specifically to assist Trump. McConnell refused to comment today on whether he regrets those actions.
• Republican lawmakers continue to dismiss today's news, calling it a distraction and "not relevant." Sen. Ted Cruz refused to acknowledge the news, instead blasting Obama "appeasement" of Russia. Rep. Marsha Blackburn dismissed news of collusion as the latest "shiny object" for the press.
• Democratic leaders believe otherwise.
• The White House itself is still struggling to assemble a coherent reaction. In a no-cameras-allowed press briefing, deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a statement from Trump calling his son "a high quality person" but was unable to report when Trump and his son last talked. Vice President Mike Pence today continues to assert he had no knowledge of this latest link between Russia and his campaign.
• Despite conservative pundit claims to the contrary, the Trump campaign's actions could land them in legal jeopardy.
• Veselnitskaya on the Trump campaign's desire for anti-Clinton information: "They wanted it so badly."
• Not even Fox News has been fully able to sweep the new revelations of collusion aside.
• Despite Jared Kushner at this point failing to reveal multiple contacts with Russia-linked individuals—including this key meeting demonstrating contact between Russian government go-betweens and himself—he continues to retain his security clearance.