Proof of collusion How Trump betrayed America

Abramson (writing, Univ. of New Hampshire) at the outset describes his work as one that mainly "aggregates and curates information." The information he assembles derives from a vast array of news articles in some way dealing with whether Russians colluded with Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign. The book assembles a "theory of the case," described as "a narrative that connects all other narratives." Abramson asserts that he is providing "the only theory of the case that answers the question of what's happening in America right now and how we can stop it." What follows is a lengthy compilation of news reports alluding to various suspect interactions between Trump, his campaign, and Russians over the years. The book does assemble a lengthy hypothesis. Convincing verification, however, would entail assembling and disproving rival hypotheses, and that is not accomplished here. A problematic example is the author's acceptance of the much-disputed Steele dossier as credible, because "numerous intelligence sources in England will vouch for [its] credibility." Those concerned about Trump's possible collusion should consult the report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller for a more measured analysis of the matter. Summing Up: Not recommended. --Steven E M Schier, emeritus, Carleton College

President Trump and his underlings "conspired with a hostile foreign power to sell... control over America's foreign policy in exchange for financial reward and covert election assistance," argues this scattershot investigation into the Trump-Russia scandal. Drawing mainly on press accounts, CNN legal analyst Abramson (Northerners) constructs a detailed, labyrinthine chronicle of contacts between Trump and his associates on the one hand and Russian officials, oligarchs, and fixers on the other. From this tangle of interactions, Abramson constructs a "theory of the case," inferring that Trump et al. offered to lift U.S. sanctions on Russia and pursue pro-Russian policies in exchange for the Russian government's permitting a Moscow real-estate deal, helping Trump's campaign with hacking and propaganda, or just bribing him. Contrary to the certainty or actionability implied by the book's title, Abramson's repetitive, eye-glazing narrative produces clouds of suspicious dots to connect, but these only occasionally rise to the level of criminal allegations. He reasonably suggests that Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey may constitute obstruction of justice; more dubiously, he asserts that Trump's campaign-trail gibe of "Russia... I hope you're able to find the 30,000 [Clinton] emails" was an illegal solicitation of a campaign contribution. Abramson's exhaustive amassing of published evidence is useful, if hard to wade through, but there's no smoking gun to clinch his claim of having proved anything. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

In the case of the ongoing Trump-Russia probe, the only plausible theory of the case that coordinates with all the existing evidence is that Donald Trump and aides, associates, and allies conspired with a hostile foreign power to sell that power control over America's foreign policy in exchange for financial reward and-- eventually--covert election assistance. This theory doesn't contend that anyone in the president's sphere participated in any hacking or even knew about Russia's cyber-intrusions in advance; it doesn't allege that the conspiracy was finely wrought, as opposed to chaotic, amateurish, and quickly capable of producing a mountain of incriminating evidence; it doesn't require that all elements of its grand narrative take place in private, as indeed many of them occurred in the plain sight of millions of Americans; and it doesn't allege that any of the actions involved rose to the level of statutory treason--a federal criminal statute that applies only if America is in a declared state of war. What this theory of the case does do is explain decades of suspicious behavior by Donald Trump, members of his family who are also political advisors, and his associates, behavior that suggests that these bad actors expected and received a massive financial reward for taking policy positions friendly to the Kremlin and adverse to the interests of the United States. The theory further maintains that once Trump had sufficient knowledge of Russian crimes to be legally responsible for not aiding and abetting them with promises of policies unilaterally beneficial to the Kremlin--a point Trump reached on August 17, 2016, at the very latest--any additional actions taken to advance Russian interests were criminal. The theory organizes a clear and discrete roster of those Trump aides, associates, and allies who were complicit in Trump's financially motivated appeasement of a hostile foreign power, and in so doing it explains why nearly every name on that list attaches to a Trump campaign, transition, or administration figure who has lied about his associations with Russian nationals. Excerpted from Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America by Seth Abramson All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.