Philip Bump is good at examining the analytics of #TrumpRussia , but he tries to reduce the Trump crimes down to three illegal acts: Hush Money. Hackers, and Trolls, when it’s a web of so many other crimes and corrupt actions made possible by the structure of crony capitalism and kleptocracy.
It was a perfect storm of Russian racketeering, money laundering, cyber-mischief, active measures, and the usual vicissitudes of a campaign, complete with moral dithering by an FBI director unsure of the scale and scope of his actions ten days before an election. An election that should not have been narrowly decided, save for some thumbs on the scale.
That question is almost impossible to answer. It was just fewer than 78,000 votes that gave Trump the presidency, 0.06 percent of the votes cast. But those 78,000 votes were in three states — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and it is not clear that any of the three acts outlined definitively shifted enough votes to propel that margin for Trump.
What became more clear this week is Trump’s campaign was aided by many more surreptitious acts violating federal law than we realized — and President Trump himself is now clearly implicated in aiding at least one.
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