This pretty much puts paid to the collusion story. If they were already colluding, they wouldn’t have someone pressing to set up meetings or they would have no problem taking them.
Via Townhall:
Regular readers know that I’ve been rather tough on Team Trump when their Russiagate spin doesn’t add up. In recent weeks, I’ve hit them pretty hard on the Donald Jr. story, and flagged additional problems for the Attorney General. But my consistent, overarching theme on the Russia matter is that we ought to follow all of the facts and let investigators do their work. When exculpatory evidence surfaces, that should matter just as much as when new information looks damning — unless, of course, you have a pre-determined agenda, as seems to be the case with many in the press. That said, good for the Washington Post to run with a story that disrupts the collusion storyline in which so many of their colleagues are heavily invested. Email records prove that Russian government envoys tried to open private lines of communication with the Trump campaign, and were rebuffed:
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…On March 24, [Sam] Clovis, the campaign co-chairman who also served on the foreign policy team, reacted to one proposed Russia meeting by writing, “We thought we probably should not go forward with any meeting with the Russians until we have had occasion to sit with our NATO allies.” In the same email chain, [Charles] Kubic, the retired admiral, reminded others about legal restrictions on meetings with certain Russian officials, adding, “Just want to make sure that no one on the team outruns their headlights and embarrasses the campaign.”