What about conspiracy to violate federal statute 52 U.S. Code § 30121, which reads: " (a) Prohibition
It shall be unlawful for—
(1) a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make—
(A)
a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State, or local election;
(B)
a contribution or donation to a committee of a political party; or
(C)
an expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication (within the meaning of section 30104(f)(3) of this title); or
(2)
a person to solicit, accept, or receive a contribution or donation described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of paragraph (1) from a foreign national.
(b) “Foreign national” defined as used in this section, the term “foreign national” means—
(1)
a foreign principal, as such term is defined by section 611(b) of title 22, except that the term “foreign national” shall not include any individual who is a citizen of the United States; or
(2)
an individual who is not a citizen of the United States or a national of the United States (as defined in section 1101(a)(22) of title 8) and who is not lawfully admitted for permanent residence, as defined by section 1101(a)(20) of title 8.
Contribution is defined as:
52 U.S. Code § 30101 - Definitions
(8)
(A) The term “contribution” includes—
(i)
any gift, subscription, loan, advance, or deposit of money or anything of value made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office; or
(ii)
the payment by any person of compensation for the personal services of another person which are rendered to a political committee without charge for any purpose.
As an academic exercise, there are enough facts, at the moment, to satisfy each element in a conspiracy charge.
The damaging information against Clinton could arguably have "value." An argument is if the campaign would have ordinarily spent money to acquire X information, but someone else gives them this information for free, thereby saving the campaign X amount of dollars to acquire X information, then how is this not the equivalent of a contribution, the equivalent of giving the campaign money? There is no logical distinction between giving the campaign X amount of money to acquire X information and giving the campaign X information which then saves them from having to spend X amount of money to get the information.
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