How a single word from former CIA Director John Brennan has changed everything about Trump-Russia By Bill Palmer Updated: 2:03 am EDT Wed May 24, 2017 | 0
Up to now, the big picture crux of Donald Trump’s Russia scandal has come down to whether his campaign advisers were merely communicating with the Russian government or colluding with the Russian government. The former would merely represent something improper and unseemly. The latter would would represent criminal intent to rig an election. But when former CIA Director John Brennan testified before Congress today, he introduced a different word which changed everything.
Republican Congressman and Donald Trump apologist Trey Gowdy tried to back Brennan into the corner of having to admit that he didn’t know for sure that there had been collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Brennen fired back with the following answer which, despite being long, seemed to have been carefully worded in advance in case the question was asked:
Much of the above consists of what you’ve heard before; we all know the Trump campaign was talking and meeting with Russian government officials. But the word that changes everything is “suborn.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition is “to induce secretly to do an unlawful thing” (link). Brennan is saying that he was concerned the Russian government was trying to recruit Trump’s campaign advisers to break the law. And so for the first time we have a government official stating his suspicion that it wasn’t merely contact, but may have instead been collusion. And that changes everything.