I have long been critical about the absolute paucity of evidence presented by those who claim collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Now, for the very first time, we have an inkling of evidence that suggests collusion may have occurred. This will be declared definitive proof of collusion by those who have been claiming definitive proof for months, but is far less than that, all things considered. According to the source himself, a political operative named Peter Smith, he independently sought out anyone who had hacked Clinton’s emails during her time as Secretary of State. Despite getting in touch with multiple hacker groups, some of which he suspected had ties to Russian intelligence, he was unable to obtain copies. Two issues complicate the subject for Trump. Emails at the time intimated Smith was associated with Flynn, although Smith denied this in his interview, and intelligence reports describe Russian hackers discussing passing on information to Flynn through an intermediary.

Sounds damning, until you look at the timeline and what actually occurred. Foremost, according to Comey the investigation into Trump’s campaign’s possible collusion began in July. According the Journal, this effort began in September. Where then is the original basis for the investigation? It still seems to be, ironically, political opposition research. Further, this was an effort to find emails from a long disused server, meaning the hacking would have taken place long ago. Instead, months prior to this attempt, Russia had already hacked DNC and Podesta and begun the process of leaking these emails.

Although the optics look, well, awful, it shouldn’t be surprising that GOP operatives tried to find evidence that Clinton’s emails were hacked. It’d be the inimitable October surprise after her campaign’s and the Obama administration's repeated assertions that her server was never hacked. Politics is a dirty game, but in the end this shady endeavor failed. Trying to tie an unsuccessful late effort to expose Clinton’s liabilities with a multi-year hacking effort by the Russian government designed to upset the US’s elections exceeds the scope of plausibility. That these hacks had already occurred and the leaks were ongoing at the time, claiming that this ties Trump campaign to Russia’s efforts is putting the cart before the horse. We have evidence that GOP operatives scoured the dark web for proof Clinton was hacked and in doing so came in contact with some bad actors, including Russian intelligence. However, it ended as an unsuccessful attempt to find evidence of a hack on Clinton’s server from any party in world. This is not collusion with the Russian government to interfere in the election.

If anyone needed proof that there is a God and he’s laughing at our dysfunction, Peter Smith died ten days after his interview with the Journal. When his coworkers were followed up with, at least one claimed he never was aware of a hunt for Clinton’s emails. Don’t be surprised if Peter Smith becomes the left’s Seth Rich.

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