Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team was never actually looking for evidence of "collusion" but rather conspiracy, his redacted report says.
Mueller's report states that the investigation set out to find whether members of President Trump's campaign conspired with Russia in its election interference and did not establish that they did so. But while Trump has chalked this up to Mueller finding "no collusion," Mueller's report notes that collusion is "not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the U.S. code" and is not a term in federal criminal law.
Therefore, the investigation was always working with the criminal definition of conspiracy "as defined in federal law, not the commonly discussed term 'collusion.'" Mueller was specifically looking for coordination, i.e. "an agreement — tacit or express — between the Trump campaign and the Russian government on election interference," which would require both parties to act in a way that was "informed by or responsive to the other’s actions or interests," per The Washington Post.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Ultimately, while the investigation doesn't establish that Trump's campaign illegally conspired with Russia, it says the campaign expected to benefit from Russia's election interference.
-
Poland downs Russian drones in NATO airspaceSpeed Read Polish airspace was “violated by a huge number of Russian drones,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said
-
Judge lets Cook stay at Fed while appealing ousterSpeed Read Trump had attempted to fire Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud
-
Israel targets Hamas leaders in Qatar airstrikeSpeed Read Hamas said five low-level leaders were killed in the attack
-
Google avoids the worst in antitrust rulingSpeed Read A federal judge rejected the government's request to break up Google
-
Supreme Court allows social media age check lawSpeed Read The court refused to intervene in a decision that affirmed a Mississippi law requiring social media users to verify their ages
-
Nvidia hits $4 trillion milestoneSpeed Read The success of the chipmaker has been buoyed by demand for artificial intelligence
-
X CEO Yaccarino quits after two yearsSpeed Read Elon Musk hired Linda Yaccarino to run X in 2023
-
Musk chatbot Grok praises Hitler on XSpeed Read Grok made antisemitic comments and referred to itself as 'MechaHitler'
-
Disney, Universal sue AI firm over 'plagiarism'Speed Read The studios say that Midjourney copied characters from their most famous franchises
-
Amazon launches 1st Kuiper internet satellitesSpeed Read The battle of billionaires continues in space
-
Test flight of orbital rocket from Europe explodesSpeed Read Isar Aerospace conducted the first test flight of the Spectrum orbital rocket, which crashed after takeoff
