Taking meetings with Russian officials with the belief they might yield information helpful to your campaign may reflect poor judgment, but do those meetings equal collusion or worse something illegal? Committing process crimes in conversations with law enforcement officials may look suspicious, but does it reflect an intent to conceal a plot to collude with Vladimir Putin? If indeed the Russians hacked and released the DNC emails, Schiff provides no evidence that the Trump campaign “colluded” with them in this act.

While Russia’s use of social media to support a variety of candidates and issues during the 2016 election provides a convenient scapegoat in Silicon Valley for Hillary Clinton’s loss, a rationale for regulating online political speech and an avenue to engage in legal extortion by threatening the tech titans with further regulation in exchange for protection in the form of campaign donations, the remarkably cheap operation did not collusion make. As the relevant Mueller indictment notes, “Some Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities. [emphasis mine]”

Lastly, is the national security advisor-designate’s discussion with a foreign counterpart regarding sanctions imposed on that counterpart’s nation just before the president-elect assumes office some kind of treasonous act?