Abetting can make one an accessory to crime. Abetting means encouraging. Trump is encouraging a crime. You're grasping for straws.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/did-donald-trump-commit-treason-n618941

"Some have wondered if Trump's statement amounts to the solicitation of a crime. But federal law requires using or threatening to use physical force to meet that definition.

...

While many legal scholars and former prosecutors say Trump's statement, even if meant as a joke, was unwise, they say no prosecutor would charge someone with a crime for saying it. "

Even NBC, hardly a conservative media site, admits that Trump committed no crime. It looks like liberals are the ones grasping at straws here.

They can't charge him right NOW but if Russia actually commits the crime he is accessory to espionage.

Another passage from the article:

"There is, of course, nothing to hack into now. The clintonemail.com server was decommissioned long ago. Trump seemed to be saying, if anyone did hack into it in the past and still has the e-mails it contained, turn them over."

Trump's comment is, as usual, vague on the details of how what he wants would be accomplished. The statement makes no distinction between whether or not additional 'investigation' would be required to obtain the missing emails (obviously the server itself is no longer a target, but if any incidental copies of the emails survive elsewhere they could be targeted).

Obviously it's not a dumb statement, because Trump supporters will eat it up with a spoon: Trump isn't doing anything, it's Clinton's fault the possibility exists, Trump's just exposing how awful Clinton is, etc. Which is all true, but doesn't make it a *good* idea to ask foreign governments to manipulate US presidential elections by releasing classified information obtained through espionage. (Especially considering the possibility of edited or fabricated documents.)

Does the fact that there's actually a somewhat compelling legal argument suggesting that Trump committed treason not ingrain into Trump supporters' minds that this is a terrible thing for Trump to suggest?

Treason? What treason? Oh....you mean looking at Hillary Clinton's yoga plans and stuff in the emails she deleted is treason? I thought we were assured that no state secrets were on her server....so....what treason is it you are actually speaking about?


OHHHHH...wait a minute...so you are saying that Hillary committed a felony and broke the law and lied to Federal investigators and...

...and Trump was making a fucking joke about it to mock the bitch and you stupid yahoo's and too retarded to grasp humor?

Idiot...

Did I ever claim Hillary shouldn't be in prison?

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/03/trump-asks-why-us-cant-use-nukes-msnbcs-joe-scarborough-reports.html

What a fantastic idea. I always thought the "do you really want this guy to have the launch codes" thing was hyperbolic shit but I guess I was wrong.

He's totally just throwing it for Hillary at this point. He's already the nominee, he has nothing to lose.

Except the presidency.

I don't know what his ultimate goal is. Does he want to be in the White House? For whatever reason, he thinks he can turn his 25% of the broken Republican Party into a majority of the nation. Trump is a freaking genius at branding and merchandising himself, or, at least, he has been in the past. How is he this terrible at making himself something people want to get behind?

I bought one of his books for charity. I assure you not a penny went to Trump.

From what I read, I assume his goal is different from the goal he states as he promotes that strategy in negotiations. I don't know if he would mind being president, but I don't think becoming president is his primary goal.

Rumour has it Trump offered the vice presidency to Kasich; the offer was to be the most powerful VP in history, that Kasich would control both domestic and foreign affairs.

When asked what Trump would be responsible for, they said, 'Making America Great'...

Planting his name on the hard work of others certainly sounds like the Trump thing to do. I would imagine he becomes the president who spends the least working hours in the Oval Office ever.

President is a valuable title.

I wouldn't give him the pleasure of that title whether he wins or not.

The theories about Trump being a Clinton ringer are hard to swallow. Like, just how good an actor do you think this guy is? When has he ever broken character? What is there in his history to give anyone the impression that he isn't exactly the thin-skinned narcissistic bullshitter he appears to be?

People that say Trump is purely a Clinton pawn are giving Clinton way too much credit. She doesn't hide her crooked, corrupted nature like that; she shows it off.

Trump is not a Clinton pawn, but I'm sure DNC officials egged him on when he was debating his egomaniacal plan to switch parties and run train on the GOP.

"Does the fact that there's actually a somewhat compelling legal argument suggesting that Trump committed treason not ingrain into Trump supporters' minds that this is a terrible thing for Trump to suggest?"

There isn't. The article says "Treason is the only crime defined in the Constitution, consisting of levying war against the United States or "adhering to" to an enemy, which means giving aid and comfort.

"What Donald Trump said does not amount to treason," said Carlton Larson, a professor at the University of California at Davis School of Law and one of the nation's few experts on the law of treason."

That's basically what I explained on the last page, and then people started saying that Trump is somehow an accessory to crime.

"He's totally just throwing it for Hillary at this point. He's already the nominee, he has nothing to lose."

He does have nothing to lose, but he also had nothing to gain from running in the first place. Trump is running for we the people because he sees that time is running out for America. We need him, not the other way around.

Kiss his feet and slobber all over his tiny hands, leon. He's all yours. The rest of us don't want him.

"he also had nothing to gain from running in the first place."

Whut? In what universe did Trump not gain anything from this? He even showed off 'his' products during speeches.

You don't think he might make a cent extra from that? You don't think he might like the huge boost to publicity?

"Trump is running for we the people because he sees that time is running out for America"
He's a narcissistic sociopath who has a long history of only thinking for himself. Sorry, saying he cares about people other than himself is a steaming pile of bullshit.

Making overblown claims about what Trump did isn't the best way to ingrain its terribleness into the minds of Trump supporters. It's even easier to deny that way. Just state what he did: invited an ambivalent-to-hostile foreign power to conduct espionage against a political rival. That doesn't magically become a good idea just because the target is Hillary Clinton and Hillary Clinton is a Bad Person.

Lethologica,

It seems to me you have overblown what Mr. Trump said. He said if you have the 30,000 deleted emails, we would like to see them. He did not suggest the Russians should conduct espionage; rather he said since Russia no doubt has the emails due to Clinton's "carelessness" maybe they should release them. To think they do not already have them is at best naive.

It doesn't matter though, Hillary has already assured us the 30,000 deleted emails were only personal emails dealing with yoga & Chelsea's wedding and we all agree that a Clinton would never lie.

@Jimmy:
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-cyber-idUSKCN10723A

That's not a suggestion that Russia has the emails and should release them. That's a suggestion that Russia should *go find them*. There's also nothing in the context of that statement suggesting Russia already has the emails, or that it's about Clinton's carelessness. Your ability to mishear Trump's comments (or perhaps to only pay attention to his hasty Twitter emendation) is not my naivete, or my problem.

And this whole "Hillary said they're only personal emails so it doesn't matter unless she's lying so it's really on her" argument is such bullshit. First, even if Hillary is telling the truth, it's ridiculous to suggest personal email can't be used for political purposes by foreign actors. Second, that political content turning up in the missing email would make Hillary look bad doesn't make Trump's comment any less asinine, it just makes him look bad alongside Hillary.

Look, hoping the emails turn up, that's fine. It's asking Russia to find them and turn them over to the media that makes Trump's comment yet another example of his automatic tendency to spew bullshit overriding good sense.

Five Thirty Eight predicted the last presidential election with 100% accuracy. Here's what they're saying now:
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/?ex_cid=rrpromo#now

Can you say "loser"?

Nowcast is mostly theater, though similar trend lines are present in polls-only and polls-plus. Nowcast is designed to be very overconfident based on recent trends, so all it's really showing right now is that Trump has had a terrible news cycle.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/anti-trump-group-files-request-melania-immigration-papers-article-1.2739903

Trump's wife may have worked illegally in the US on a tourist visa. A request to see her immigration records has been made to reconcile her statements with the different visa type requirements. If she worked on a tourist visa, then Trump has another case of do as I say, not as my family does.

Already Clinton has been criticizing Trump companies for buying from China and other Asian countries instead of US factories including for his campaign hats. Make America Great applies only to making the rich richer.