President Trump tweeted this morning: “Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent. That’s politics!”

It is pretty unusual, though not unheard of, for American politicos to seek information on their opponents from foreign powers. It’s even more unusual to seek such information from an unfriendly foreign power. If this were routine and above-board, then 1) Donald Trump Jr. would not have dribbled out information about the meeting so grudgingly, 2) the White House would not be placing so much emphasis on the president’s lack of personal involvement, and 3) we’d be hearing from more veterans of past Republican campaigns that they had such meetings all the time.