New report shows Trump team was not interested in meeting with Russians...

The adviser, George Papadopoulos, offered to set up “a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump,” telling them his Russian contacts welcomed the opportunity, according to internal campaign emails read to The Washington Post.

While the emails illustrate his eagerness to strengthen the campaign’s connections to the Russian government, Papadopoulos does not spell out in them why it would be in Trump’s interest to do so. His entreaties appear to have generated more concern than excitement within the campaign, which at the time was looking to seal the Republican nomination and take on a heavily favored Hillary Clinton in the general election.

The proposal sent a ripple of concern through campaign headquarters in Trump Tower. Campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis wrote that he thought NATO allies should be consulted before any plans were made. Another Trump adviser, retired Navy Rear Adm. Charles Kubic, cited legal concerns, including a possible violation of U.S. sanctions against Russia and of the Logan Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens from unauthorized negotiation with foreign governments.

But Papadopoulos, a campaign volunteer with scant foreign policy experience, persisted. Between March and September, the self-described energy consultant sent at least a half-dozen requests for Trump, as he turned from primary candidate to party nominee, or for members of his team to meet with Russian officials. Among those to express concern about the effort was then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who rejected in May 2016 a proposal from Papadopoulos for Trump to do so.

The exchanges are among more than 20,000 pages of documents the Trump campaign turned over to congressional committees this month after review by White House and defense lawyers. The selection of Papadopoulos’s emails were read to The Post by a person with access to them. Two other people with access to the emails confirmed the general tone of the exchanges and some specific passages within them.

This was obviously a disappointing story for the Washington Post to have to write, as it generally suggests that the Trump team was not (in fact) interested in meeting with the Russians. It also may explain some of what John Brennan meant, when he suggested that he saw interaction between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. The problem (from pressing a legal case) is that someone reaching out to "you" is not a crime. Especially when those overtures are rejected.

The entire premise of the Russian collusion conspiracy theory is that the more we find out, the more it will start to uncover evidence of collusion. That the Trump Jr meeting was just the tip of the iceberg, and when we looked below the surface we would uncover the bulk of the criminal evidence.

But it would appear, that the more we find out, the more the entire concept of collusion remains little more than the conspiracy theory it is accused of being.