Yes, Trump colluded with Russia

Philip Bump

The Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia “was no hoax,” said

Philip Bump. That’s the unmistakable conclusion of a new Treasury Department report on Russia’s malign activities, which finally connected a straight line from the Trump campaign to Russian intelligence. Special counsel Robert Mueller had previously discovered that Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, gave several troves of polling data and campaign strategy in 2016 to Russian intelligence officer Konstantin Kilimnik, a former business partner of Manafort’s in Ukraine. The new report confirms for the first time that Kilimnik then turned that data— which included information about swing states—over to “the Russian intelligence services” for use in their online disinformation campaign to help Donald Trump. A longtime adviser to Kremlin-backed Ukrainians, Manafort originally promised to tell prosecutors what he knew but reneged after President Trump dangled a pardon at him. That pardon was granted before Trump left the White House—completing a successful cover-up. But now we have confirmation of what has been obvious to anyone not in denial: Trump’s campaign did provide direct help to Russia, and Russia used it in its campaign to get Trump elected president.