Trump fluffer Rudy Giuliani has been making the circuit proclaiming that “collusion” is not a crime. He says that he even tried looking it up in the US code and didn’t find collusion anywhere. Does that make it legal? Of course not. Try to find “slaughter” or “carnage” in the US Code. Not there? The crime is “murder”. Likewise, “collusion” may not be a crime, but “conspiracy” certainly is, and it is quite simple:
923. 18 U.S.C. § 371—Conspiracy to Defraud the United States
If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
In other words if two or more people discuss or otherwise plan to commit a crime, and any one of them takes any action toward committing that crime they are subject to five years in prison.
Conspiracy does not require that the underlying crime actually be committed, all that is required is that it be planned and that someone do something in furtherance of the crime.
Conspiracy is an interesting crime because it requires that some other crime, the underlying criminal offense, be the subject of the conspiracy. So what offenses might Mueller be looking at?
Well, there are federal campaign finance violations:
52 U.S. Code § 30121 - Contributions and donations by foreign nationals
(a) ProhibitionIt shall be unlawful for—
(1) a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make—
(A) a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election;
(B) a contribution or donation to a committee of a political party; or
If a non-US citizen contributes anything of value they are violating this statute. Providing the Trump campaign with money or hacked data could be a violation. This would be the underlying crime. If any US citizen assisted this effort they could be committing conspiracy.
Another underlying crime could be computer hacking:
18 U.S. Code § 1030 - Fraud and related activity in connection with computers
(4) knowingly and with intent to defraud, accesses a protected computer without authorization, or exceeds authorized access, and by means of such conduct furthers the intended fraud and obtains anything of value, unless the object of the fraud and the thing obtained consists only of the use of the computer and the value of such use is not more than $5,000 in any 1-year period
Hacking into the DNC would certainly be a crime.
Wire fraud may also have been committed:
18 U.S. Code § 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television
Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
Organized “Fake news” operations might be wire fraud.
If anyone in the Trump orbit or Trump himself had prior knowledge of any of these activities they would involved in a conspiracy.
Next, we come to obstruction of justice:
18 U.S. Code § 1510 - Obstruction of criminal investigations
(a) (1) (C) Whoever willfully endeavors by means of bribery to obstruct, delay, or prevent the communication of information relating to a violation of any criminal statute of the United States by any person to a criminal investigator shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than five years, or both
18 U.S. Code § 1512 - Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant
(3) hinder, delay, or prevent the communication to a law enforcement officer or judge of the United States of information relating to the commission or possible commission of a Federal offense
...
(c) Whoever corruptly—
(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a
record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or
(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both
(d) Whoever intentionally harasses another person and thereby hinders, delays, prevents, or dissuades any person from—
(1) attending or testifying in an official proceeding
Obstruction is an attempt to influence a prosecution. Asking Comey to go easy on Flynn may be obstruction of a criminal investigation. Trump’s tweets that Session’s should un-recuse himself and end the Mueller investigation might be obstruction of a criminal investigation. Attempts to signal to Manafort that he might be pardoned could also be obstruction via witness tampering. Destroying emails or meeting records is also obstruction. Rudy’s over the top harassment and character assassination of Cohen might even be witness tampering.
Obstruction of justice requires that the person know that a potential violation has been committed and that there is an attempt to impede government activity.
Finally we have perjury:
18 U.S. Code § 1621 - Perjury generally
(1) having taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or
person, in any case in which a law of the
United States authorizes an oath to be administered, that he will testify, declare, depose, or certify truly, or that any written testimony, declaration, deposition, or certificate by him subscribed, is true, willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true; or
(2) in any declaration, certificate, verification, or
statement under penalty of perjury as permitted under
section 1746 of title 28, United States Code, willfully subscribes as true any material matter which he does not believe to be true;
Simple, if you lie under oath you are committing perjury. When a witness lies under oath about an important topic, it almost always interferes with a prosecutor's case. That's why charges of perjury often accompany charges of obstruction.
In summary, collusion is not a specific crime in itself, but can very easily be a web of interconnected felonies, each of which carry their own penalties.
Let’s imagine that the Russians hacked the DNC, and that someone in the campaign knows about the hacking before it was performed. That’s computer hacking fraud as the underlying crime. The hackers can be prosecuted for this crime. Anyone who knows about the hacking and does not inform law enforcement is committing conspiracy to commit computer hacking fraud.
Here’s where it gets interesting. If stolen information was offered to anyone in the Trump campaign, it doesn’t matter if the information was received. If any person learns of the hacked information keeps it secret they could be implicated in the hacking conspiracy, as well as conspiracy to provide an illegal campaign contribution, and obstruction of justice.
If the information was accepted it could be an illegal contribution, another underlying crime, and if multiple people know about the information they too are subject to charges of conspiracy.
If anyone subsequently lies to authorities about or otherwise tries to cover up the activity, it’s perjury and obstruction of justice—new underlying crimes. If multiple people coordinate their lies, they are all subject to additional charges of conspiracy, this time conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The same complex and dangerous web applies to illegal activities surrounding wire fraud (coordinated fake news), witness tampering and all other forms of obstruction of justice. Anyone involved in performance of these crimes or covering them up has opened themselves up to very serious criminal penalties, and any coordination of these actions is additional conspiracy. Lying under oath is perjury and likely obstruction, and coordinating lies under oath, more conspiracy.
This is getting very real for the perpetrators. While Trump and Rudy may be bellowing “no collusion” and “collusion is not a crime,” the other participants are speaking with their lawyers about their potential exposure, to conspiracy, fraud, illegal campaign activities, perjury and obstruction of justice.
It may have been thrilling to to dance with the devil and grab the presidency against all odds, but who has the stomach for actually now lying to federal prosecutors: perjury five years, obstruction another five years? Who is going stick to the cover story: conspiracy, another five years? If they cut a deal, might they be able to avoid prison time?
At this point anyone who knows anything about or has committed any crime relating to these matters and has not already fessed up is well advised to approach prosecutors and come clean. It is not going to get any better for them and it will get a whole lot worse.
Talking to you Rob, Dan, Stephen, and Hope. You too, Reince, John, Brad, Steve and Don. Last chance Sarah, Raj, and Kelly Anne. What you know can hurt you, a lot. A big storm is upon you and the water is rising. Time to grab for a life raft. It may already be too late.