11 Jul 2017 1:13 am
Donald Trump Jr. May Well Have Committed A Federal Crime, Experts Say.
Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 with the express purpose of getting information the Russian government had acquired on Hillary Clinton, according to a New York Times report published on Monday night.
If this account is true, experts on national security and election law say, then there is a very real chance that President Trump’s son committed a federal crime.
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“The law states that no person shall knowingly solicit or accept from a foreign national any contribution to a campaign of an item of value,” explains Ryan Goodman, a former Defense Department special counsel and current editor of the legal site Just Security.
“There is now a clear case that Donald Trump Jr. has met all the elements of the law, which is a criminally enforced federal statute.”
The statute in question is 52 USC 30121, 36 USC 510 — the law governing foreign contributions to US campaigns.
There are two key passages that apply here. This is the first:
It means that the law extends beyond just cash donations.
Foreigners are also banned from providing other kinds of contributions that would be the functional equivalent of a campaign donation, just provided in the form of services rather than goods.
Like, say, damaging information the Russian government collected about Hillary Clinton.
“To the extent you’re using the resources of a foreign country to run your campaign — that’s an illegal campaign contribution,” Akerman explains.
Here’s the second important passage of the statute: “No person shall knowingly solicit, accept, or receive from a foreign national any contribution or donation prohibited by [this law].”
The key word from Trump Jr., according to University of California-Irvine election law expert Rick Hasen, is “solicit,” which has a very specific meaning in this context.
To quote the relevant statute:
Given that political campaigns regularly pay thousands of dollars to opposition researchers to dig up dirt, it seems like damaging information on Clinton would constitute something “of value” to the Trump campaign.
Donald Trump Jr. met with a Russian lawyer in June 2016 with the express purpose of getting information the Russian government had acquired on Hillary Clinton, according to a New York Times report published on Monday night.
If this account is true, experts on national security and election law say, then there is a very real chance that President Trump’s son committed a federal crime.
[..........]
“The law states that no person shall knowingly solicit or accept from a foreign national any contribution to a campaign of an item of value,” explains Ryan Goodman, a former Defense Department special counsel and current editor of the legal site Just Security.
“There is now a clear case that Donald Trump Jr. has met all the elements of the law, which is a criminally enforced federal statute.”
The statute in question is 52 USC 30121, 36 USC 510 — the law governing foreign contributions to US campaigns.
There are two key passages that apply here. This is the first:
The crucial phrase here is “other thing of value,” legal experts tell me.A foreign national shall not, directly or indirectly, make a contribution or a donation of money or other thing of value, or expressly or impliedly promise to make a contribution or a donation, in connection with any Federal, State, or local election.
It means that the law extends beyond just cash donations.
Foreigners are also banned from providing other kinds of contributions that would be the functional equivalent of a campaign donation, just provided in the form of services rather than goods.
Like, say, damaging information the Russian government collected about Hillary Clinton.
“To the extent you’re using the resources of a foreign country to run your campaign — that’s an illegal campaign contribution,” Akerman explains.
Here’s the second important passage of the statute: “No person shall knowingly solicit, accept, or receive from a foreign national any contribution or donation prohibited by [this law].”
The key word from Trump Jr., according to University of California-Irvine election law expert Rick Hasen, is “solicit,” which has a very specific meaning in this context.
To quote the relevant statute:
In short? If Trump Jr. asked Veselnitskaya, in person, to provide “anything of value” on Clinton then there’s a real case that he illegally solicited a campaign contribution from a foreign national.A solicitation is an oral or written communication that, construed as reasonably understood in the context in which it is made, contains a clear message asking, requesting, or recommending that another person make a contribution, donation, transfer of funds, or otherwise provide anything of value.
Given that political campaigns regularly pay thousands of dollars to opposition researchers to dig up dirt, it seems like damaging information on Clinton would constitute something “of value” to the Trump campaign.