Jill Stein looped into widening investigation of Russia and Trump Jr. connections

[Jim Lane]

11. Your attacks on Stein are unsupported by the article you link.

Let me try to head off the pack of baying alerters by stating that I voted for Clinton, not Stein. As best I can remember I have never voted for a Green Party candidate for anything.

As a Democrat, I'm also a member of the reality-based community. That means I reject the Bush/Fox News standard of asserting the facts to be whatever will fit your biases. Instead, I look at evidence.

You write:

Why was Stein in communication with Don. Jr? And in refusing to comply with the Senate request, is she covering up for herself or the baby elephant killer?

1) Nothing in the linked article says that Stein was communicating with Don, Jr. In fact, it quotes Stein herself as denying it, and it refers to no witness or documentary evidence that would call her statement into doubt.

All that happened was that some attorneys, framing a document demand, cast a very wide net to see what might be out there. I've done this myself. It's not at all surprising if you ask for documents in 15 different categories and get the response that there are no documents responsive to 12 of them. You can spend an extra few minutes drafting requests that will probably be fruitless, or you can risk missing something juicy. The second danger is obviously greater.

2) Not only is Stein not "refusing to comply", it would not even be possible for her to comply, and therefore not possible for her to refuse to comply. The request was not addressed to her. Your linked article includes a tweet from Kyle Griffin, who per his Twitter profile is a producer at MSNBC and therefore not some random nutjob. He states, "The Senate Judiciary Committee has requested documents from Don Jr. and Manafort ...." (emphasis added) That understanding is supported by the text of your linked article:

But investigators seem to be casting a wider net by asking Trump Jr. for “all communication to, from or copied to you relating to” a long list of individuals that include Stein.

There's no indication, at least in this article, that the Senate committee has asked Stein for anything, let alone that she has refused to comply with any lawful request.

You write: "And why on God's earth would anyone who opposes Trump defend her?" It gets back to that bit about the reality-based community. I defend people I don't like when the attacks on them are unjustified. I believe that the odious Ted Cruz, despite all his other horrible features, is constitutionally eligible to be President, so I've defended him against left-wing birtherism even while abhorring his policies. I believe that Jill Stein should not have run for President as a Green, but I'll defend her against McCarthyite smear jobs.