receive from a foreign national any contribution or donation prohibited by this section. of course, the president is right that opposition research is done all the time. the potential crime is getting that research from a foreign national like the russians who attended that meeting. and legal experts have argued that dirt on hillary clinton could be considered a thing of value under this statute. as for whether anyone, quote, knowingly accepted it, we should look at the june 2016 e-mail from goldstone. the publicist who set up the meeting. in which he wrote, quote, the crown prosecutor of russia offered to provide the trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary clinton and her dealings with russia and will be very useful to a father. don jr. wrote back, quote, if that's what you say, i love it. in the second part of the president's tweet, he insists the meeting went nowhere. seemingly indicating that because of that, nothing illegal could have happened.