The Center For American Progress Is Releasing A Nearly 50-Page Report Claiming Trump–Russia Collusion

In a forthcoming report, the progressive think tank lays out what the public knows about interactions between the Trump campaign and Russia during the lead-up to Election Day, hoping to get Democrats to “stop beating around the bush.”

Pool / Reuters

A major progressive think tank wants Democrats to stop being shy about accusing the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia.

The Center for American Progress has written a nearly 50-page report for Democrats in Congress, making the case for collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia. The report, a draft of which was reviewed by BuzzFeed News ahead of its release Wednesday, makes the bold claim that “it is now clear there was collusion” and “this is the biggest political scandal in American history.”

CAP’s report, which includes several appendices linking to news reports and quotes from the Trump administration, does not include any new information, but it does represent a push for a dramatic change of tone for Democrats in Congress.

“We're ... trying to convey that it’s time to stop beating around the bush on Trump’s collusion with Russia. There is a mountain of evidence that Trump and his associates colluded with Russia and it’s time to start saying so,” Adam Jentleson, senior strategic adviser and former deputy chief of staff for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, told BuzzFeed News in an email.

“We think it’s time to be a lot more forward-leading because the evidence is overwhelming.”

This is a drastic departure from what most Democrats in Congress have been saying since Trump entered the White House in January. At least in public, most congressional Democrats have yielded on the side of caution, calling for further investigation before alleging actual collusion — while at the same time emphasizing stories like the recent revelation that Donald Trump Jr. and others from the campaign spoke with a Russian lawyer last summer, in a meeting pitched to the president’s son with the promise of damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

“I think the reason why we’re putting this report out is that we need to sort of face the facts of what’s staring us in the face here,” Max Bergmann, a senior fellow at CAP and author of the report, told BuzzFeed News. “When you piece it all together and you lay out the facts, all the information that we know… the picture becomes very clear. And what is clear is that the president’s campaign was willing to collude with Russians and did.”

The Justice Department under special counsel Robert Mueller, the House and Senate intelligence committees and the Senate Judiciary Committee are all still conducting investigations on Russia interference in the US election and any involvement by the Trump campaign.

The draft of CAP’s report lays out everything the public knows about how the Trump campaign and Russia interacted during the campaign based on information gathered from press reports and congressional testimony. According to CAP, the evidence should be enough for Democrats to argue the campaign colluded with Russia.

CAP’s plan is to deliver the report to “key offices” on the Hill with the hope of giving Democrats the “confidence” to make a collusion argument. Jentleson said Democratic leadership, as well as members of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees in the House and Senate, will be receiving the report.

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Other perspectives on this story

• 1 One person expressed concern that saying Trump was guilty of collusion violated long-held ideas about justice.
• 2 Some did not expect the report to change the mind of Trump's base, but hoped it would sway people who currently don't care.
• 3 Others questioned the intentions of the report, as it was released by a think tank with ties to the Democratic Party establishment.
• 4 Some people thought it was finally time for a report that made a substantive case.
• 5 One person finds it useful, but wished a conservative organization had released it to increase its reach.
• 6 A few people were glad to see a single document that tied together threads of news involving the Trump administration and Russia.

• 1
  1/6

  "Democrats need to maintain the 'innocent until proven guilty' value or it will backfire. This would be a slippery slope."

  @knittingkris
• 2
  2/6

  "We are probably never going to change the mind of his core base. The goal of a report like this is to change the people who are apathetic to concerned. The far left is convinced he colluded, the far right will never be convinced, this is about consolidating it to convince your generic voters. People like my dad who tend to shy away from the news because they assume its all bias."

  /u/kanst
• 3
  3/6

  "I fucking hate Trump as much as the next person but coming from CAP doesn't carry that much weight, does it? Considering Neera Tanden's very close relationship to the Clinton campaign could it really? Not saying it's useless, not saying anything other than wondering if perhaps this is positioned to mean more than it actually does is all."

  Cyclone_1
• 4
  4/6

  "Yes definitely time to stop beating around the bush"

  @JupiterKrash
• 5
  5/6

  "If this was done by the Heritage Foundation or something, I'd be a little more perked up. I get that it's going to be a super-useful tool though. I'm just stating that it's not exactly as sensational as the headline makes it out to be. Anyone that isn't left of center will outright dismiss this and refuse to even read it though due to where its coming from."

  /u/Adama82
• 6
  6/6

  "As I write this, a number of comments have dismissed this report, citing the fact that it contains no new information. That's not the point. A report that summarizes what is the currently known course of events in a succinct and cohesive form will be of tremendous service to the many people who lead lives too busy to keep track of it all."

  /u/partyofnogaku

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