It would be nice if one day would pass without stories about the investigations into whether the Donald Trump campaign colluded with Russian representatives in an effort to sway the election in Trump’s favor. Collusion isn’t a criminal offense but conspiracy is, and the big question right now is whether Donald Trump Jr. and others violated U.S. election law.Trump Jr. has admitted he attended a meeting in June 2016 with a Russian government attorney who supposedly had damaging information about Hillary Clinton to use against her in the presidential campaign. Trump Jr. apparently jumped at this opportunity. It turned out the Russians didn’t have any information about Clinton.The Trumps have made so many miscues that being amateurs in politics doesn’t excuse them. Trump Jr. should have reported the invitation to a meeting to the FBI. He didn’t. He has spent months denying there were any contacts with the Russians. Then all of a sudden, he says there were, saying he wanted to be transparent. There’s been a lot of lying in this matter.It will be up to Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller to determine whether there were ties between the Trump campaign and Russia that amounted to meddling in the presidential election, and whether Trump Jr.’s eagerness to obtain dirt on Clinton from the Russians was a crime. U.S. election law forbids a foreign government to directly or indirectly make a contribution or donate money “or other thing of value” to an American political candidate. Did Trump Jr. receive anything of value from the meeting with the Russian attorney, or is he guilty of soliciting a political contribution from the Russians? Is political dirt a thing of value?Probably some members of the Trump family wonder why they ventured into politics and government, which senior said was a dirty field.One thing that appears to be likely is that out of all of this will come new election laws that are much stricter than what we have now in regard to candidates dealing with foreign countries in campaigns in accepting help.