The Trump Campaign Conspired With the Russians. Mueller proved it.

Jed Handelsman Shugerman (@jedshug) is a law professor at Fordham. He is a co-author on amicus briefs challenging President Trump's Emoluments Clause violations and his appointment of Matthew Whitaker as attorney general.

In his first letter after receiving the Mueller report, Attorney General William Barr accurately quoted it as saying that “the investigation did not establish” that the Trump campaign “conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

But the opposite is also true: The Mueller report does establish that, in fact, members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.

How is this possible? It’s the difference between the report’s criminal prosecution standard of proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” and a lower standard — the preponderance standard of “more likely than not” — relevant for counterintelligence and general parlance about facts, and closer to the proper standard for impeachment.

There is confusion about the Mueller report’s fact-finding because he used the wrong coordination standard, obstruction probably obscured the evidence of crimes, and the summary was unclear about evidentiary standards. The report’s very high standard for legal conclusions for criminal charges was explicitly proof “beyond a reasonable doubt.” So the report did not establish crimes beyond a reasonable doubt. But it did show a preponderance of conspiracy and coordination.

Mitch McConnell Should Explain Why He Obscured Russian Interference In Our Election

From the Lexington Herald Leader’s editors—glad to see this sulfurous bastard getting called to account in one of Kentucky’s top newspapers.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should explain why he blocked a bipartisan denunciation of Russian interference in our election before voters went to the polls.

Americans deserve to hear why McConnell did not trust them with the evidence that he and 11 other congressional leaders received in a confidential briefing in September.

The Washington Post reports that during that briefing McConnell “made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.”

Our party will be irrelevant unless it acts now to protect the rule of law.

The infection must be cut out and the wound must be cauterized or the patient will die.

Too many voters will, irrevocably, lose respect for our party, while others, completely stymied in their efforts to protect and preserve the truth, will take it out sideways on representatives who choose the “best not rile him” approach. Meanwhile, the lights are ever blinking red. Impeachment appears the only real option.

My neighbor has cats

Unvaccinated, unneutered, unspayed cats. I live in a migratory corridor for several endangered species like the gray vireo and willow flycatcher. The cats are coming onto my property to hunt. They get in the trash cans. They howl at 4 a.m.

I confronted the adult daughter, the instigator, two weeks ago. When trash was strewn in front of my house a few days ago, I tried to talk to her again. She blew me off and told me to talk to her father, who happened to be out of town, but is returning again later today.

I rush ordered a havaheart humane cat trap, and lo, found it occupied this morning.

I am going over to confront the father later. This gets resolved today. I HATE this! I love cats (indoors) and like my neighbors but this is ridiculous!

Any advice here from fellow birdwatchers is appreciated—in case we come to loggerheads.

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