"Cahoots" is your word. Goldstone said the Russian government had information and documents that would "incriminate" Hillary and her dealings with Russia. What does that mean? It could cover a wide range of subjects including her emails that she destroyed. And it may not have to do just with Russia.
The narrative takes on a totally different flavor if the substance of the offer would have been to fund the Trump campaign, or propagandize for Trump. If that was the case, "collusion" is a fair accusation.
This is all based on Goldstone's characterization of events. He will have to testify about those statements and what they were based on. It just opens up another Pandora's box for Mueller to investigate.
My point is that the "trick" you cite, and I agree it will be used, is to isolate the sentence or clause that says "we want to assist your campaign by providing this assistance."
Of that you can be sure. This is the smoking gun and it came from Donald Trump Jr. I am confident that the CIA had a copy of the email chain and forwarded it to Comey. This appears to me to be the document that was used to get the FISA warrant in July, not the dossier. I wonder how long the Intel Community was in surveillance of the Trump campaign. It had to be before the FISA warrant. Lots of intrigue here.
I'm not saying the CIA didn't get this in the first place, but the email chain appears to be entirely domestic. June 7, Goldstone says the Russian lawyer is flying over from Moscow.
-- "Cahoots" is your word. Goldstone said the Russian government had information and documents that would "incriminate" Hillary and her dealings with Russia. What does that mean? --
Beats me, but the subject line is "Russia-Clinton" not "Russia help for Trump campaign." Again, it goes without saying that what is offered is meant to be (has to be) helpful to the Trump campaign, otherwise there is no interest. My general point is that if the test for "collusion" is "helpful," then the test is flawed. I fully expect the press to use a flawed test, flawed logic, flawed legal analysis, and every manner of "fake news" that it has been practicing for all of my life.
-- It just opens up another Pandora's box for Mueller to investigate. --
Yes, and that's probably the least of it.