Robert Mueller had one last play to call in order to prove collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
It centered on a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that was arranged by Donald Trump, Jr.
But when Trump, Jr. testified about the meeting Robert Mueller quickly realized he made a massive miscalculation.
The meeting at Trump Tower was arranged after a music publicist — who the Trumps knew from the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant — emailed Trump, Jr. claiming to know a lawyer who could provide information of illegal coordination between the Russian government and the Democrats.
Trump, Jr. set up the meeting but it was quickly apparent the set up was a pretense for a Russian lawyer to lobby about ending the Magnitsky Act, which placed sanctions on Russia because of human rights violations.
The anti-Trump media tried to claim the set up for this meeting proved the collusion narrative and Congress was eager to talk to Trump, Jr.
That day finally arrived and Trump, Jr. put the collusion narrative to bed.
The New York Times reported on his statement to Congress:
“Donald Trump Jr. told Senate investigators on Thursday that he set up a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer because he was intrigued that she might have damaging information about Hillary Clinton, saying it was important to learn about Mrs. Clinton’s “fitness” to be president.
But nothing came of the Trump Tower meeting, he said, and he was adamant that he never colluded with the Russian government’s campaign to disrupt last year’s presidential election.
In a prepared statement during an interview with Senate Judiciary Committee investigators, the younger Mr. Trump said he was initially conflicted when he heard that the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, might have damaging information about Mrs. Clinton. Despite his interest, he said, he always intended to consult with his own lawyers about the propriety of using any information that Ms. Veselnitskaya, who has ties to the Kremlin, gave him at the meeting.”
His statement that the meeting ended up having nothing to do with the campaign matches every public comment about the encounter from everyone involved.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner also testified behind closed doors about the meeting and he also forcefully denied any collusion with Russia.
To date, no evidence of collusion has been produced.
This is a wild goose chase the media and law enforcement eagerly engaged in only because Hillary Clinton and her campaign claimed it was the only way she could have lost the election to Trump.
So Washington has been consumed with an investigation for months that has yielded no results but has paralyzed the administration.
Republicans in Congress and the White House have been so consumed with responding to the baseless claims of collusion that their time to pass Trump’s agenda has drained away.
Repeated “bombshells” in this story have fizzled upon even a quick glance.
The Trump, Jr. meeting was another revelation that was breathlessly hyped by the media but ended up being a giant ‘nothing burger.’
