As news emerged yesterday that yet another Trump campaign staffer sought “dirt” on Hillary Clinton from Russian sources, it’s worth addressing again why it’s just plain wrong to seek opposition research from geopolitical foes. I keep seeing Trump campaign apologists claiming that it’s just fine to dig up dirt, regardless of source. When it comes to seeking meetings with Russian officials, this view is naïve at the very best and generally just plain nuts.

Let’s put aside for the moment the rather important reality that foes like the Russians will only provide you with information that advances their self-interests, rendering you a tool of a national enemy. Let’s focus on the fact that the contact itself is so toxic that it’s inherently compromising. Here’s what I wrote this summer, when folks were actually defending Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner for meeting with a purported Russian operative:

Moreover, it glosses over a fundamental political reality — by taking meetings with enemies, expressing a willingness to cooperate with enemies, and concealing those meetings, you grant your enemy leverage over your political fortunes. We do not know the extent of the Trump team’s interactions with the Russians. The Russians, however, do, and they know if the Trump team is lying in its most current round of public statements. If there are further contacts or more or different embarrassing paper trails, then that knowledge can hang like the sword of Damocles over the heads of relevant Trump officials. Can that impact their dealings with Russia? Will it? Perhaps not, but they’re only human, and human beings tend to act in their perceived self-interest.
I don’t want to use an over-worked term like “kompromat,” but compromising information doesn’t need to truly “turn” someone to have its impact. It can have more subtle and insidious influence, placing boundaries on your own behavior and causing fear that should not exist.

Now consider yesterday’s most surprising news — George Papadopoulos’s guilty plea. The inherent impropriety and foolishness of his contact compromised him so much that he committed a federal crime rather than tell the truth. Think of the multiple public falsehoods from members of the Trump team concealing their own Russian contacts. Has anyone else lied to the FBI? Time will tell.

Yes, it is very true that law enforcement, for example, often uses the worst of sources — including terrorists — to gain access to important information. It’s also true that information about criminal behavior most often resides in the hands of criminals. But there is a quantum difference between the actions of trained intelligence officers and mere campaign operatives. Campaign operatives possess a fraction of the resources, only the smallest amount of overall situational awareness, and all the wrong incentives. Eager for dirt, they become dupes.