A Russian Reminder: Trump’s Strategy Counts On Our Ignorance
(First of seven posts)
Donald Trump has nominated the stunningly unqualified Kash Patel to be FBI director. In announcing the nomination Trump referred to the “Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax.”
Patel has written a children’s book titled “The Plot Against the King” in which he tells through fantasy the story of the investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign’s possible ties to Russians.
The fact is Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and Trump’s possible acts of obstruction of justice relating to that probe are far from a hoax.
As a reminder, we will be republishing seven posts written in 2019 detailing Mueller’s findings. We feel it’s vitally important that we all remember what actually happened as Trump’s second administration prepares to destroy the agencies and people who did the work of bringing the truth to light and as it further gaslights our nation.
“It’s a witch hunt,” they seethed.
“It’s a hoax. It’s a deep state conspiracy. It’s illegal spying conducted by traitors.”
But, in fact, the first sentence of the second paragraph of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s attack on the 2016 election says this:
“The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion.”
That’s not a hoax. That’s a frightening reality.
“There’s no obstruction,” they claimed.
But, in fact, the report details a number of incidents of possible obstruction of justice by Donald Trump, the most corrupt, incompetent and unfit president in history, and since its release hundreds of former federal prosecutors who worked in Republican and Democratic administrations have signed on to a statement asserting that Mueller’s findings would have produced obstruction charges against Trump if he wasn’t president.
“Each of us believes that the conduct of President Trump described in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report would, in the case of any other person not covered by the Office of Legal Counsel policy against indicting a sitting President, result in multiple felony charges for obstruction of justice,” the statement says.
“We emphasize that these are not matters of close professional judgment,” it added. “Of course, there are potential defenses or arguments that could be raised in response to an indictment of the nature we describe here. . . . But, to look at these facts and say that a prosecutor could not probably sustain a conviction for obstruction of justice — the standard set out in Principles of Federal Prosecution — runs counter to logic and our experience.”
Get Rick Elia’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
“There’s no collusion,” they yelled.
But, in fact, Mueller didn’t evaluate the evidence on the non-legal term of collusion but on the specific crime of conspiracy “as defined in federal law.”
So, although “numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign were found,” and “the investigation established that the Russia government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
In other words, although Russia’s attack was designed to help Trump get elected, and his campaign welcomed, encouraged and hoped to benefit from it, conspiracy charges couldn’t be filed because the legal standard to do so wasn’t met.
It’s because of these facts that Trump and a complicit Republican Party are working so hard to continue to obstruct justice after the release of a redacted version of the report. The longer we don’t hear the full story from witnesses like Mueller and former White House Counsel Don McGahn, the more time they have to push their false narrative.
It’s easy to write this off as just politics as usual, but it’s too dangerous to give them a pass.
Among other issues, Mueller’s report lays out the blueprint of Russia’s attack on us in 2016. In their furious efforts to protect Trump, Republicans are in essence sweeping the danger under the carpet. At the very least this minimization could lessen the level of public concern.
Is the GOP providing Russian President Vladimir Putin cover for coming at us again?
Whether it’s their fear of Trump, their personal agendas or the hope Russia will again interfere on their party’s behalf, the Republicans’ actions are a complete abandonment of their responsibility to seek the truth and protect our country.
If our Republican politicians are going to be derelict in their constitutional duties then I guess it’s up to us to find out what’s going on.
This is the first of a series of three posts. The next two will outline what Mueller’s report tells us about Russian interference in our election.
This project has two main purposes: to help fill in the blanks for the many people whose busy lives make it hard to keep up on this subject, and to show just what the Republicans hope we don’t know, because if you know what Russia did you know this is something that urgently needs addressed, not buried as part of a political cover-up for the president.
Tomorrow’s post is about Russia’s use of social media to influence the election. The last will be about the hacking efforts of the Russian government. It’s all taken straight from Mueller’s report.
Trump and the Republicans are trying to pull a con job. Like all cons, this one will only work on gullible folks who allow the smoke and mirrors to distract them from this reality: That no matter how much Trump and his cronies huff and puff and lie and obstruct, Mueller’s credibility rests only on one thing — his work.
And it’s spectacular.
Thank you for reading my post. You can see my other writings on my blog: Musings of a Nobody. Please share and subscribe for free via email on its home page.
