Trump needs to come clean. Democrats need to be careful.

It’s fashionable among President Donald Trump’s defenders to dismiss the reports of his eldest son meeting with a Russian lawyer who promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton as yet another “nothing burger.”

You’ve heard the counterpoints. The Democrats are obsessed with the Kremlin. Nothing came of the Russian attempt to dish dirt. Donald Jr. made all his e-mails about it public. And, hey, whatever happened, it’s probably not even illegal

And while all of that is likely true, it misses a broader point. The e-mails the younger Trump received from music promoter Rob Goldstone, who promised official Russian “documents and information that would incriminate Hillary,” may have just been an opportunist trying to curry favor with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. But Goldstone’s successful effort to set up a meeting between members of the campaign’s inner circle and a lawyer with Kremlin connections puts the lie to Team Trump’s longtime defense in the brewing scandal: no contact, no collusion.