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Letters to the Editor

Collusion isn’t a crime? That’s parsing words

HELSINKI, FINLAND - JULY 16:  U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during a joint press conference after their summit on July 16, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland. The two leaders met one-on-one and discussed a range of issues including the 2016 U.S Election collusion.  (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
HELSINKI, FINLAND - JULY 16: U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during a joint press conference after their summit on July 16, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland. The two leaders met one-on-one and discussed a range of issues including the 2016 U.S Election collusion. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Getty Images

For many months, Donald Trump has been reminding us that there was no collusion between anyone in his campaign and Russia. More recently, the unredoubtable Rudy Guillianni and other surrogates have switched their pitch to “collusion is not a crime.”

The American Heritage dictionary (Fourth Edition) describes collusion as “acting together secretly to achieve a fraudulent, illegal, or deceitful purpose; to conspire.” Since conspiracy is a crime and is a synonym of collusion, it’s a bit of a stretch to suggest it is not a crime,

We should also note that conspiracy and 30 other synonyms for collusion include deceit, graft, scam, racket, con game and bunco (as in bunco squad), just to name a few.

Frank Dougherty

Chapin

The State publishes a cross-section of the letters we receive from South Carolinians in order to provide a forum for our community and also to allow our community to get a good look at itself, for good or bad. The letters represent the views of the letter writers, not necessarily of The State.

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