At the risk of oversimplifying, there are two broad “Russian collusion” theories. One lacks credibility. The other just got a slight boost yesterday when Jerome Corsi provided to the Washington Post what appears to be a draft statement of offense from the special counsel’s office. Let’s call them the James Bond theory and the Austin Powers theory. The James Bond theory is fading. The Austin Powers theory may well be true.
The heart of the James Bond theory is the unsupported Steele dossier. This is the tale of collusion that has long captivated elements of the left-wing media — involving alleged “kompromat,” clandestine meetings, financial leverage, and all the stuff of a classic spy story. According to this theory, collusion represented the marriage of a sophisticated Russian intelligence operation with a near-treasonous Trump campaign — apparently full of hyper-competent operatives who could sneak, undetected, into Europe for key meetings with Russian assets.
The James Bond theory, for example, puts Michael Cohen in Prague in 2016 to meet with Russians, or Paul Manafort in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to meet with Julian Assange — two reports with dubious (to put it charitably) sourcing that all too many members of the mediaswallowed whole. The James Bond theory makes Russian collusion and Trump cooperation dispositive in the election. This was the scheme that upended American democracy.
I’m sorry. I don’t buy it. Not yet. Not without actual, substantial evidence. Indeed, the evidence is so thin that it’s in the Trump team’s interests to keep it in the news. The media’s eagerness to fall for anonymous sources and lurid stories hurts their credibility. It helps the Trump team to make the case that this story is the story, and if this story is false, all collusion claims are false.
But there’s another version of the collusion tale.
This is the Austin Powers theory, and it’s supported by actual evidence. This is the picture that emerges not from anonymous allegations and Clinton campaign–funded opposition research but rather from the emails and documents publicly revealed so far. Under the Austin Powers theory, the Trump campaign had in its orbit and near-orbit a collection of comically inept crooks and grifters who were looking to gain any advantage they could — without regard for morality, law, or common sense.