Crazy theories about Mueller

And then they came for Robert Mueller. If there were any remaining hope that Republicans would accept the precise, methodical work of this veteran, highly respected, Republican-appointed law enforcement official — the man Newt Gingrich once called a “superb choice to be special counsel” — it has evaporated in a fog of propaganda and delirious conspiracy theories.

In the real world, Mueller, appointed as special counsel after President Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey in May, is doing the job he was hired to do — smoke out any and all links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government officials who assaulted US sovereignty in 2016 in an effort to get Trump elected.

These days, the most serious attacks on US governance are coming not from abroad, but from Trump’s aides and allies in the right-wing media and the government. As ludicrous as these attacks seem, they could yet lead to a constitutional crisis.

Reading the increasingly outlandish theories cooked up by Trump’s defenders and apologists is like entering an alternate universe, where Hillary Clinton remains Public Enemy No 1. In these irrelevant tales, Clinton is the real colluder, working stealthily with the Russians to — stay with us here — destroy her own candidacy. She and Bill Clinton once sold American uranium to the Russians. Mueller failed to fully investigate that sale when he led the FBI, so he’s complicit in it too, not to mention that he has ties to Comey, who also led the FBI. Some of his investigators donated to Democratic candidates.

There’s no bottom to the delusion on display. At this point, investigators could release videotapes of Vladimir Putin handing Trump a uranium-lined briefcase filled with stolen e-mails, and the right-wing armada would find a way to blame Clinton. These efforts at obfuscation and misdirection would be laughable, but they are linked to a dangerous move by Trump allies to shut down the Russia investigation for good. New York, November 1.