By his own admission, Donald Trump, Jr. met with some Russian nationals prior to the election. He thought they may have some dirt on Hillary Clinton. Many people are now saying that Trump Jr. committed a crime by allegedly accepting information from he Russian government intended to influence the election.

Eugene Volokh, who is a First Amendment attorney and law professor at UCLA discusses the broad consequences if this assertion is true:

But wait: This doesn’t just risk criminal punishment for the foreign businessman. What if a New York Times reporter is approached by the Turk, who wants to set up a meeting, and the reporter says, “if it’s what you say I love it”? Then, by the same logic being applied to Trump Jr.’s response, that reporter is committing the crime of soliciting the illegal expenditure — he’s encouraging the businessman to illegally give a gift of something of value (information).