It seems that Donald Trump is colluding a lot with Putin

Robert Mueller’s failure to prove a criminal conspiracy between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia is one of the most misinterpreted facts in recent history. The lack of a conspiracy charge shows that there is a lack of laws designed to stop collusion between presidential campaigns and hostile foreign powers. (As Mueller testified, “We did not address ‘conspiracy,’ which is not a legal term.) It further demonstrated how difficult it is to prosecute a boss who ensures he doesn’t keep notes or incriminating evidence in his presence allows, especially when the lieutenants involved in the plot (Paul Manafort, Roger Stone) refuse to attack him because he dangles a pardon. If mafia bosses had the power to pardon, they would not often be prosecuted.

What the episode failed to demonstrate, despite Trump’s insistence, was that the Russia scandal was a gigantic hoax. It was a huge scandal, for which evidence continues to pile up.

The latest comes from Bob Woodward’s new book, which contains reporting on the very close and secretive relationship between Trump and Vladimir Putin. In 2020, when the United States and the world were in dire shortage of COVID tests, Trump sent some to his friend for his private supply. Now it is possible to rationalize this favor on foreign policy grounds. Perhaps Putin needed tests to function, and his functioning helps avoid a dangerous miscalculation. What is more suspicious is that Putin advised Trump to keep the shipment secret: “I don’t want you to tell anyone because people will be mad at you, not at me.”

That is, Putin was concerned about maintaining Trump’s domestic viability. He sensed a continued investment in Trump’s success, realized that Trump would be undermined by the (correct) realization of their friendship, and urged him to keep it secret, which he did.

Woodward also reports that the two men continued to talk up to seven times. Trump reportedly drove away his aides over the calls, continuing a pattern of his emphasis on secrecy when speaking to Putin.

Earlier this week, the New York Times new details unearthed about a 2017 meeting between Trump and Putin. In it, Trump asked Putin whether he should give weapons to Ukraine. Putin, of course, advised him not to do that. Aides had given Trump talking points to warn Putin against his ongoing slow-motion invasion of Ukraine, but Trump, according to the Times“never pushed back.”

The accurately The nature of the relationship between Trump and Putin has never been fully explained. It is overwhelmingly clear that the two men have a political alliance, a bond of personal trust and a shared understanding that they must keep their alliance hidden from the American public. The fact that details about this alliance are still trickling out years later is a rebuke to the foolish idea that Mueller’s investigation exonerated Trump.

his post originally appeared in Jonathan Chait’s &C. newsletter, which you can register for here