At A Minimum, Criminal Charges Must Be Filed
News has broken that Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Donald Trump Jr. took a meeting with a Russian government connected lawyer. Newly released emails show how the meeting apparently took place to further the Russian government's efforts to support the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
Campaign finance laws clearly state that American electoral campaigns cannot request "something of value" as a contribution from foreign nationals and governments. Emails show that the meeting took place to further the Russian government's efforts to support the Trump campaign. This is clearly an attempt by the Trump campaign to solicit a contribution of "something of value" from a foreign national or government. The emails show that three members of the campaign are directly at fault, while leaving the standing of the rest of the campaign up in the air.
This is dangerous. Members of the Trump campaign appear to have clearly encouraged the Russian government's efforts to support for their campaign. Criminal charges should swiftly filed for the members of the campaign that took the meeting, as they are those that are directly at fault for violating the campaign finance criminal statute. If Kushner, Manafort, and Trump Jr. are not charged, a dangerous precedent that would allow increased foreign interference in our electoral system would be set. Our electoral system is already compromised by the extent to which American dollars and unknown dark money exist within its structure, finding the Trump campaign not guilty of violating the law would only worsen our election's integrity.
The worrying thing about this entire situation is that we don't know to what extent the entire Trump campaign has in this. Sure, we know of the 3 members of the campaign that were directly involved, but we don't know to what Trump himself, or even Pence, knew about this. The current investigation into the Trump campaign's potential collusion with the Russian government potentially has a lead that could be the downfall of the entire Trump administration. Any foreign involvement in our country's electoral system must be prevented.