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Article snippet: Donald Trump Jr.’s 2016 meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer who promised damaging information via the Russian government has again engulfed President Trump in questions about whether his campaign colluded with Moscow. The younger Mr. Trump and his allies have argued that pursuing material that could prove useful against a political opponent is standard practice in campaigns. But while opposition research is part of modern presidential campaigns, it normally does not come from representatives of a hostile foreign power. Here is how the peddling of opposition research — or oppo, as political professionals and reporters call it — typically works. One of President Bill Clinton’s favorite Arkansas political sayings was, “If you see a turtle on a fence post, it didn’t get there by accident.” Many campaign accusations and revelatory news stories about a candidate or elected official are the fruits of what is euphemistically called the research division of campaigns and political parties, where low-profile aides search for dirt. “The crackpots get routed to research,” said Tracy Sefl, a veteran Democratic practitioner of the dark arts of oppo. Much of the job is fielding too-good-to-be-true (or simply unverifiable) charges via furtive phone calls, manila envelopes and untraceable email accounts. Working in the Democratic National Committee’s research department in the 2004 campaign, Ms. Sefl recalled meeting a woman with a story to tell about President George W. Bush... Link to the full article to read more