You frequently hear Rudy Giuliani and other Trump supporters claim that "collusion is not a crime." As I wrote in this post back in the summer of 2017, that claim is nothing but a smokescreen. It's true there is no crime called collusion. There's also no crime called "shooting someone until they're dead" or "breaking into a house and stealing a laptop." But of course that doesn't mean those acts are not criminal - the crimes are called homicide and burglary. What matters in criminal law is what you do, not what label someone chooses to put on it. Collusion is generally defined as joining with someone else to achieve some improper end. In criminal law we call that a conspiracy. The federal conspiracy statute prohibits two different types of conspiracies: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Bob Mueller has already used both types of conspiracy charges in his cases against Russian actors for attempting to interfere with the 2016 election. In addition, a federal judge recently
New Video: Collusion 101
New Video: Collusion 101
New Video: Collusion 101
You frequently hear Rudy Giuliani and other Trump supporters claim that "collusion is not a crime." As I wrote in this post back in the summer of 2017, that claim is nothing but a smokescreen. It's true there is no crime called collusion. There's also no crime called "shooting someone until they're dead" or "breaking into a house and stealing a laptop." But of course that doesn't mean those acts are not criminal - the crimes are called homicide and burglary. What matters in criminal law is what you do, not what label someone chooses to put on it. Collusion is generally defined as joining with someone else to achieve some improper end. In criminal law we call that a conspiracy. The federal conspiracy statute prohibits two different types of conspiracies: conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Bob Mueller has already used both types of conspiracy charges in his cases against Russian actors for attempting to interfere with the 2016 election. In addition, a federal judge recently