Leading russia collusion journalist (Isikoff) changes mind: now thinks no collusion

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By the end of the interview, which actually begins with a look at his large role in the recent Amazon/A&E miniseries The Clinton Affair (about Bill Clinton’s impeachment) it was quite clear that, against the grain of the rest of the media horde, Isikoff is now leaning, rather clearly, against the idea that Robert Mueller is likely to claim criminal “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia. As a result of his highly reasoned, though admittedly circumstantial argument, he now has me inclined more decidedly in that direction as well.

Isikoff concluded that portion of our interview by declaring, seemingly against his own self-interest, “All the signs to me are, Mueller is reaching his end game, and we may see less than what many people want him to find.”

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There seem to be at least four basic reasons behind Isikoff coming to his tentative conclusion about where this is all going (or, perhaps, not heading). Here they are in no particular order:

1) The infamous “Steele Dossier,” while largely vindicated in the big picture, has not been proven to be true with regard to several important details. One of which is the so-called “pee tape,” which, just as I wrote when Isikoff’s book came out, his reporting may have uncovered information which explain how that story could easily just be an urban legend.

2) The dossier also alleges that Michael Cohen went to Prague to help coordinate this “collusion,” but Isikoff notes that there is absolutely no indication in his plea deal that he admitted to lying about that trip in his congressional testimony, which would have been a huge deal.

3) Isikoff agrees with my assessment that the Michael Flynn sentencing recommendation of no jail time makes absolutely no sense if he had been a central figure in “collusion” (which, he seemingly would have had to have been), especially given his lawyer’s very confrontational filing at the end of this past week.

4) Isikoff notes that the plea deal for admitted Russian spy Maria Butina was rather underwhelming if, as had been widely speculated, she had taken part in Russia funding the Trump campaign through the NRA, which would likely be the largest campaign finance violation in our history.

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