The investigation is obviously not a witch hunt, having obtained guilty pleas from people directly or indirectly tied to Trump’s campaign. But none of those charges have established a clear link between Trump’s campaign and the Russia misinformation and interference effort. There were numerous meetings between Russian nationals and Trump campaign representatives. On 57 occasions, Trump’s tweeted “no collusion,” establishing the benchmark Mueller needs to hit to prove that the investigation was worthwhile — proof of Trump himself having worked with Russia to influence the election. Imagine again that the Russia investigation didn’t exist and that these campaign finance allegations — and Trump’s evolving misrepresentations about what happened — were the most significant issue the president faced.

Source: Washington Post December 13, 2018 18:22 UTC