Is Trump an Accessory after the Fact?

1/ We start with the elements: An accessory after the fact is a person who: (1) knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, (2) receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment.

2/ To obtain a conviction, a prosecutor must prove both of the above elements beyond a reasonable doubt. Let’s stick with two kinds of “facts”—(1) public comments and (2) those in the Mueller docs (which Mueller believes he has evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt).

3/ The underlying crimes are violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: hacking, theft and dissemination of emails carried out by Russian military officers, as explained in Mueller’s most recent indictment. Here’s the statute from the Mueller doc:

4/ [For more on the 7-13 indictment of the Russians for hacking, etc., see  twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield… ] Remember, how this works: we start with the elements of Accessory After the Fact, and then we apply the facts and analyze.

5/ Element 1: Knowing a crime has been committed In April of 2016, Papadopolous told the Trump campaign that the Russians had dirt on HRC in the form of hacked emails. In June, the “dirt” was again mentioned to Trump Jr. He said, “I love it, especially later in the summer.”

6/ The KNEW about the hacking before the public. Element 1, check. Now for element 2, helping the perpetrators. Jr. influenced the timing of the emails when he said, “especially later in the summer. The emails WERE disseminated later in the summer.

7/ Remember how often Trump told people to read the stolen emails as deployed by Wikileaks? That’s helping. Each time Trump lied to the American people and tried to cast doubt on whether Russia was behind the hacking, he was “assisting the offender.”

8/ And yeah, Trump’s position on sanction? That was “preventing . . . punishment.” Element 2, check. “Collusion” in this context is mushy. “Accessory after the fact” is much more precise.

9/ We’ve known for a while that before taking office, Trump was briefed on Russian interference. This NYT article gives more specific:

In Jan. 2016 he was shown compelling classified evidence that the Russians were responsible for the attack,