On Thursday evening, the Wall Street Journal revealed another aspect to the collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Before the 2016 presidential election, a longtime Republican opposition researcher mounted an independent campaign to obtain emails he believed were stolen from Hillary Clinton’s private server, likely by Russian hackers.

That Republican researcher, Peter Smith, claimed to be working with Trump’s former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn. Smith’s actions, which took place in advance of the campaign, seem to consist of searching for contacts in the hacking community that might be able to provide Hillary Clinton’s private emails. It’s a clear example of the kind of active cooperation between hackers and Republican operatives that law-enforcement has been searching for.

Those investigators have examined reports from intelligence agencies that describe Russian hackers discussing how to obtain emails from Mrs. Clinton’s server and then transmit them to Mr. Flynn via an intermediary, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the intelligence.

It’s not clear if Smith was that intermediary, or if Flynn had other connections funneling information from Russia. But the information about Smith fills in another gap, something that around the central figures of Trump, Kushner, Flynn, Sessions, and Manafort were a whole host of operatives. It also shows that the investigation into Trump–Russia requires more than just scanning Trump’s phone calls for Moscow area codes.

But Smith is just one Republican operative who colluded with Russia. We already know there were others.

In May, a Republican operative in Florida admitted to a different type of collusion.

When Guccifer 2.0 issued an open invitation to any journalist who wanted information, Nevins said he responded affirmatively through a Twitter message. He said he didn’t follow up and didn’t hear anything for 10 days.

The actions of Aaron Nevins may seem to be after-the-fact. But Nevins did more than just ask the hackers to send him information, then eagerly read it. He provided feedback. 

going through what the hacker sent as someone who “actually knows what some of these documents mean,” the GOP consultant said he “realized it was a lot more than even Guccifer knew that he had.”

Nevins helped the Russians identify the most valuable information that came from their huge data-grab, including documents on how Democrats planned to get out the vote, which Nevins helpfully told them was worth “millions of dollars.”

Peter Smith and Aaron Nevins both worked with the Russians to help them sort and disseminate their information. To help increase the impact of the Russian thefts. These two could be the tip of a GOP iceberg — with the Trump campaign at its core.

But then, we already know Donald Trump colluded with the Russians. Not “Donald Trump’s campaign.” Donald Trump. After all, we watched him do it, live, on television.

If you’ve been told that the car someone is offering you is stolen, and you take it anyway, you’re guilty of knowingly receiving stolen goods. If you’ve been told that the information being posted about your opponents campaign was stolen and posted by Russian agents—which Donald Trump was—and you use it anyway—as Trump did—you’ve knowingly colluded with the people who stole that information to turn it into value both for them, and for yourself.

Trump did more than just joyfully use information that he’d been told, over and over, was stolen by Russian agents. He publicly asked those agents to do more. A “joke” about as funny as asking a serial killer to fit in another murder.

The only thing to discover is whether Trump colluded in other ways. Ones he didn’t smack his lips, brag, and smirk about on nationwide TV.