As details of the meeting with a Russian lawyer and top members of the Trump campaign emerge, a talking point among some right-wing pundits has been that collusion, in and of itself, would not be a crime.
Some experts disagree, arguing that assistance by the Russian government to the Trump campaign could amount to an illegal campaign contribution by a foreign principal, NBC News reported.
But even if the lawyer was somehow representing Russia, and even if she passed on national security information, it would be difficult to see a prosecutable case, legal practitioners say.
"I just don't see an easy crime to prove here," said Amy Jeffress, a former top Justice Department national security lawyer in the Obama administration. "Collusion is wrong, but I'm not sure it's a crime."
Other legal experts — who tend to be professors, not practitioners — have argued that collusion itself could run afoul of some anti-corruption statutes.
Still, some say it may be more likely that crimes could have been committed in covering up alleged collusion.
