A top Justice Department lawyer during the George W. Bush administration said he had seen no evidence the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in 2016 but suggested this was because they weren’t “well organized enough to conspire effectively.”
“Personally, I haven’t seen anything which shows the Trump administration responded. I think because they were so chaotic and badly organized … the Trump campaign couldn’t do anything right. I don’t even think they were well organized enough to conspire effectively, but we’re still going to see,” John Yoo told NPR.
He argued that recent indictments of people linked to President Trump proved Russia was trying to get in contact with Trump associates during the campaign, but they don’t yet show whether the campaign conspired with Russia to win the election.
Yoo, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is best known for writing a series of memoranda outlining “enhanced interrogation techniques” to be used question detainees after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Those techniques were widely criticized as torture.
He said there was nothing wrong with Trump wanting to do business in Moscow as a private citizen, “other than being a bad business decision.” Legal issues could arise, Yoo said, if Trump’s campaign made a business deal with the Russians in exchange for help to win the election.
“Ultimately in the end, we need to hear from President Trump,” Yoo said. “Did candidate Trump order subordinates in the campaign to respond? There’s a difference between talking and actually conspiring. … I still think only President Trump really knows.”
Yoo said special counsel Robert Mueller may eventually ask for a sit-down interview with Trump, which Trump should agree to, he said, because presidents have “some kind of obligation” to show they cooperate with law enforcement. Trump and his lawyers have already responded to written questions from Mueller.
“The president, constitutionally, is the chief law enforcement officer in the country. All prosecutors work for him. It’s a terrible message to all of us in the country if we’re expected to cooperate and help law enforcement, but then the chief law enforcement officer under the Constitution himself won’t cooperate with those same prosecutors,” he said.
At least 16 people in Trump’s orbit had some type of interaction with the Russians during the election, according to CNN.
Trump’s former longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, last month admitted to lying to Congress about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen told Congress the negotiations came to a halt in January 2016. He now admits the negotiations continued until June 2016, even after Trump became the Republican nominee for president. During the same period, Trump was advocating for better relations between Washington and Moscow.
