What Is Collusion?
If you’ve watched the news at least recently, you’ve probably seen or heard the term “collusion” when you talked about President Trump’s senior staff being accused of shady deals with Russia. But what is collusion? And is this really a crime?
Today, Jared Kushner, senior adviser and son-in-law to President Trump, appeared before Senate investigators and denied any conspiracy with foreign agents before or after the 2016 presidential campaign. His statement, of course, refers to the news that a meeting between a Russian citizen, who claimed to have destructive material about Hillary Clinton, and Trump’s inner circle did take place in June 2016. The term “collusion” was a political buzzword. since then, but it is mostly used as a general statement and does not carry as much weight under US law as you might think.
The literal definition of this word is “a secret agreement or cooperation, especially for illegal or false purposes.” When it comes to competition and antitrust law, it is illegal here in the US outside of this, however, collusion itself is not a specific federal crime. Technically, you can “collude” with a foreign government anytime you want, as there is no law that says otherwise. The term is vague and misused to refer to a wide range of possible crimes.
However, just because federal law does not specifically criminalize collusion does not mean that there were no other crimes. As Paul Rosenzweig, a former deputy assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, explains in Politico , Trump’s staff could be charged with conspiracy (18 USC § 371) to violate US electoral laws. In this case, US law prohibits foreign citizens from contributing any “valuable things” to the election campaign – and dirt on Hillary Clinton may fall under this vague terminology. According to John W. Dean , former lawyer of Richard Nixon in the White House, other possible breaches include ” aiding and abetting ” (18 USC § 2) “fraud and related activities, Computer Related” ( 18 USC § 1030 ), “Telegraph Fraud” ( 18 USC § 1343 ) and “donations and donations from foreign citizens” ( 52 USC § 30121 ).
When it comes to talking about “collusion,” Carrie Cordero , an attorney, associate professor of Georgetown Law and former adviser to the assistant attorney general for national security, notes that it is important to “distinguish between political and legal discussions.” The term itself will continue to proliferate, but it’s good to know that it doesn’t have much legal meaning. There is no law prohibiting the Trump leadership from working with Russians. For consequences to take place, there must be evidence that they worked together to commit a specific crime, helped each other commit a specific crime, or helped each other cover up a specific crime. Until then, we must let the investigation take its course and see what happens.