Trump Campaign Did Receive Something Of Value At Trump Tower Meeting Alone

Now that Trump has admitted that his son, along with Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner, engaged in a conspiracy to receive electoral help from foreign nationals in their meeting with the Russians at Trump Tower, the focus has turned to whether they received anything of value which would be a criminal violation of federal election law. Much of the media reporting takes the position that it is still unclear whether the Trump campaign actually did receive anything of value such as the NY Times which merely regurgitates the Trump team’s view that “The president and his son have maintained that the campaign did not ultimately receive any damaging materials about Mrs. Clinton as a result of the meeting”.

Now admittedly, as we have seen from Trump, his son, his team, and the Russians involved, there is a strong incentive for everyone at that meeting to lie about exactly what went on. But almost a year ago, multiple media outlets reported that the Russians had, in fact, offered specific information that could be used to damage Clinton at that meeting. According to the NY Times, “The memo that Ms. Veselnitskaya brought to the Trump Tower meeting alleged that Ziff Brothers Investments, an American firm, had illegally purchased shares in a Russian company and evaded tens of millions of dollars of Russian taxes. The company was the financial vehicle of three billionaire brothers, two of them major donors to Democratic candidates including Mrs. Clinton. By implication, Ms. Veselnitskaya, said, those political contributions were tainted by ‘stolen’ money. Kremlin officials viewed the charges as extremely significant.”

Certainly the Russians thought they were bringing something of value to the Trump campaign. The fact that it was not exactly the kind of dirt that Don Jr. expected or wanted does not mean that it had no value. But perhaps the most important thing of value that the Russians offered at that meeting was a direct assurance that the Russian government would take active measures to help Trump get elected. That was something that the Trump campaign not only accepted but encouraged during the election season. To my layman’s mind, at least, on its face the information the Trump team got from the Russians in the Trump Tower meeting alone crosses that threshold of something of value.