GOP strategist says Trump collusion question is settled: 'They colluded with the Russians -- that's clear'

Republican strategist Rick Tyler said the publicly available evidence was clear -- the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the election.

The former communications director for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Donald Trump Jr. had essentially admitted to collusion by releasing his emails setting up a meeting with a Russian lawyer offering damaging information against Hillary Clinton.

"They were looking for opposition research from a foreign government who doesn't have America's interest in mind," Tyler said. "They were willing to coordinate with that group, they all knew it, that's collusion."

Collusion in itself is not a crime, but Tyler said special counsel Robert Mueller must determine whether their actions broke any U.S. laws.

"Now whether it meets definition of conspiracy or broke any particular laws, that's a different question," Tyler said.

But he said the collusion question was clearly settled.

"They colluded with the Russians -- that's clear," Tyler said.

The Trump team has insisted their actions are commonplace in the political world, but Tyler said that's simply not true.

"There’s collusion with the Trump campaign with the Russians, that was clear," he said. "Whether it amounted to anything has not been proven. They were willing to meet with Russian operatives to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. I reject the notion that, the idea — we are all using political world opposition research and opposition research people base their reputation on providing accurate information."