On Being Recruited to Collude with the Russians

Matt Tait offers an accounting “of experiences which were thoroughly bizarre and which I did not fully understand” when a longtime Republican activist sought his help in trying to obtain Hillary Clinton emails from Russian hackers.

Over the course of our conversations, one thing struck me as particularly disturbing. Smith and I talked several times about the DNC hack, and I expressed my view that the hack had likely been orchestrated by Russia and that the Kremlin was using the stolen documents as part of an influence campaign against the United States. I explained that if someone had contacted him via the “Dark Web” with Clinton’s personal emails, he should take very seriously the possibility that this may have been part of a wider Russian campaign against the United States. And I said he need not take my word for it, pointing to a number of occasions where US officials had made it clear that this was the view of the U.S. intelligence community as well.

Smith, however, didn’t seem to care. From his perspective it didn’t matter who had taken the emails, or their motives for doing so. He never expressed to me any discomfort with the possibility that the emails he was seeking were potentially from a Russian front, a likelihood he was happy to acknowledge. If they were genuine, they would hurt Clinton’s chances, and therefore help Trump.

Jonathan Chait: Now we have a road map to the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia.

Think Progress: A quick breakdown of all the Trump-Russia reports this week.