Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the status of the Russian investigation and a look back at the various crimes alleged over the year.  A brief search of mainstream media found roughly 5000 stories referring to “bombshell” developments. However, the status has changed little over the year.  That could, of course, change.  We do not know what Special Counsel Robert Mueller had in terms of new evidence.  That did not stop many from declaring conclusive evidence supporting charges over the year despite the paucity of evidence.  While we have had four indictments or pleas, but the charges are been notably removed from the core purpose of the Russian collusion investigation.  The point of the column is not that new charges are unlikely but that there is little public evidence supporting such charges at the end of 2017.  CNN reported yet another “bombshell” discovery this week: George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat that Russia had “political dirt” on Hillary Clinton in May of last year.  However, there has to be more than knowledge of such hacking (or even a desire to use the results of hacking) to support even a collateral criminal charge. We could certainly reach that point in 2018 but the evidence remains sketchy on specific criminal acts tied to Trump or his closest aides related to Russia.

Here is the column: