We must know more about Trump-Russia probe — soon
A recent headline in The New York Times — a paper of record for the antiTrump Resistance — was adamant:
“Barr Dismisses
Trump’s Claim That Russia Inquiry Was an Obama Plot.”
Reading that, you might come away believing that Attorney General William Barr had just brushed off President Donald Trump’s much-tweeted Obamagate theory. Trump insists the now-discredited Russia collusion probe against him was an Obama scheme.
Only one problem with the headline: Barr didn’t dismiss it. Barr did not say there was no plot.
He did not say former President Barack Obama or his vice president, Joe Biden — now the presumptive Democratic nominee — had nothing to do with it.
The Russia collusion investigation tore the country apart. It cost some $40 million and lasted almost three years, leading to partisan impeachment proceedings against Trump, which failed to result in a conviction. Run by special counsel Robert Mueller, it found no credible evidence to accuse any American with colluding with Russia in the 2016 election.
But the hysterical media and partisan finger pointing that came with it did accomplish something.
It allowed Obama and establishment Democratic Party bosses to escape blame for backing Hillary Clinton and losing the White House to Trump. If they could blame Russia for Trump, they could herd anti-establishment Democrats like the Bernie Bros into a safe space and keep control of their party. And so, it was done.
The news buzz is all about Trump taking hydroxychloroquine to ward off the coronavirus, and the pandemic fills the American bandwidth. But the story of Obama’s Kemalists continues. This is why Obama and crew are outraged and busy whipping up their useful idiots. They can see what’s coming.
What’s already come out in just a few weeks is a saga papered with lies peddled by spymasters and politicians to journalists. Some former spymasters testified under oath before Congress that they had no evidence on Trump-Russia collusion, then eagerly went out on cable news for pay to shout that Trump was a tool of Vladimir Putin.
There were lies supporting the now-discredited Steele dossier paid for by the Clinton campaign, and lies to the FISA courts, and the Obama administration’s political unmasking of Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversation with a Russian diplomat. His champions say he was pressured by federal threats against his son. Barr dropped the case and called it a trap. There were a series of prosecution errors, including an FBI official wondering in a case file if agents were questioning Flynn to “get him to lie, so we can prosecute him.”
Some Obama supporters, including former prosecutors, offer the dissenting view. They’re adamant that dropping the Flynn case would cast a shadow on all political corruption cases. Others, including me, think the targeting of Flynn was all about getting him out of the way.
Pressure is being applied. People will flip. Some editors of newspapers that received Pulitzers for covering the collusion saga may think about assigning reporters to walk back this cat. Before November, Americans must find out exactly what happened with the Obama White House and the Russia collusion investigation, and why.