Donny’s rant on Twitter is wrong again

It's a “no collusion” illusion.

President Trump went on a factually dubious Twitter tirade Friday, asserting he “won” a lawsuit alleging his campaign colluded with the Russian government — even though the presiding judge emphasized in her ruling that she could not ascertain whether there was in fact collusion.

“Just won lawsuit filed by the DNC and a bunch of Democrat crazies trying to claim the Trump Campaign (and others), colluded with Russia,” Trump tweeted. “They haven't figured out that this was an excuse for them losing the election!”

First off, the lawsuit was dismissed by federal Washington Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle on Tuesday, so Trump's claim he “just won” it seems peculiar.

Secondly, the lawsuit was not filed by the Democratic National Committee, as Trump claimed.

It was filed by ex-DNC staffer Scott Comer and two DNC donors, Roy Cockrum and Eric Shoenberg. The three plaintiffs alleged Trump's campaign conspired with longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone and the Kremlin to provide WikiLeaks with a cache of hacked DNC emails during the 2016 campaign.

The most glaring error in Trump's tweet is perhaps his suggestion that Huvelle's ruling absolves him of any claims that his campaign colluded with Russia.

Judge Huvelle specifically noted in her ruling that she could not draw any conclusions about whether there was collusion. Instead, Huvelle said she tossed the suit because it was filed in the wrong jurisdiction.

“It bears emphasizing that this court's ruling is not based on a finding that there was no collusion between defendants and Russia during the 2016 presidential election,” Huvelle wrote.

Trump, who tweets the phrase “no collusion” several times a week, has characterized special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as a baseless “witch hunt,” even though it has produced federal indictments against four Trump campaign officials, 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies.