Seth Abramson, a professor and legal analyst, on Thursday provided what he said was "evidence of criminal collusion" between President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and the Russian government.
In a massive Twitter thread, Abramson said that there was a "clear pattern" of actions taken by the Trump campaign before and after the election which points to a conspiracy to undermine U.S. sanctions against Russia.
Abramson came to the conclusion that there was "likely" collusion with Russia after examining the Trump campaign's activities in four European countries -- Italy, Greece, Hungary and Austria -- which wanted sanctions to be lifted.
"As it's illegal to accept anything of value from a foreign national as part of a campaign, negotiate U.S. policy if one hasn't been elected, or aid/abet crimes committed against America by other nations, there was *no reason* for Trump to be in contact with these four nations," Abramson wrote. "So if we detected a *clear pattern* of Trump aides not *only* secretly reaching out to foreign nations, but *exclusively reaching out to nations working to end sanctions on Russia*, and if we saw that pattern in *pre-election behavior*, it'd be evidence of criminal collusion."
The legal analyst went on to break down the Trump campaign's actions in each country.
"What is obvious is that *all* of Trump's top aides—not just a few of them—targeted, and not just after the election but *during the election*, making as many covert contacts and having as many covert negotiations with Russia, Italy, Hungary, and Greece as they possibly could," Abramson observed. "There's *no* doubt that Trump was negotiating U.S. sanctions policy during the election and—I must add—both before, during, and *after* the revelation of Russian crimes against the United States. This is collusion (frankly even the meetings are collusion) by *any* definition."
"Whether Trump also *coordinated* with Russian *hacking* is a separate question—and the jury is still out on that, though the Don Jr.-WikiLeaks secret messages are starting to tell that story," he concluded. "But collusion on sanctions, and thus aiding and abetting Russian crimes? *Yes*."
Read the entire Twitter thread below.