The unmentioned dark lessons of RussiaGate

Larry Kummer, Editor

7 years ago

Summary: My previous two posts about Andrew McCarthy’s Ball of Collusion showed how it could spark reform of American. Now we look at what RussiaGate means for us. These are insights obvious but seldom mentioned. We close our eyes before sights that are too bright to see – or (as in this case) too dark to contemplate.

“When the plot is ripe it remains no longer secret.”
— Gandolf the Grey in The Two Towers of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Dark lessons from Ball of Collusion:
The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

By Andrew McCarthy (published on 13 August 2019).
He is a former Deputy US Marshall and Asst. US District Attorney.

With RussiaGate, the Deep State exerted its power to destroy or at least cripple Trump. It succeeded, but at the cost of revealing itself to the greatest exent since the Church Committee hearings in 1975. Will this have the same light and transitory effect? For RussiaGate has shown how the Deep State has grown powerful beyond the nightmares of most Americans, and that it now seeks to change our government to better suit its needs.

McCarthy has documented this beyond any reasonable standard of proof. Ball of Collusion is probably the finest feat of prosecutorial research and presentation in his career.

McCarthy assembled the pieces of RussiaGate. Some are known to most Americans. Some are known only to those who followed it either professionally or obsessively. The previous posts mentioned a few of his bombshell revelations. I recommend reading the book to see the amazing picture.

Let us turn to what this means for America’s future.

The Deep State won

With stunning boldness, officials of the Deep State – with their allies in the Democratic Party and enablers in the news media – claim that Russia was influencing the 2016 election. McCarthy clearly shows that the truth was the opposite of that.

“Chicanery was the force behind the formal opening of the FBI’s Trump–Russia investigation. There was a false premise, namely that the Trump campaign must have known that Russia possessed emails somehow related to Hillary Clinton before WikiLeaks caused the dissemination of hacked Democratic National Committee emails to the media, beginning on July 22, 2016.

“Starting from that premise, the foreign ministries of the United States and Australia, through mendacity or incompetence, erected a fraudulent story that warped the Trump campaign’s purported foreknowledge of Russia’s perfidy into a potential espionage conspiracy.”

Officials continued their open attacks on Trump after the election. By January 21016, the long investigation had found nothing showing improper collusion of Trump or his campaign staff with Russia – or any efforts by Russia to assist Trump. Revelations in the infamous Steele Dossier had proven either false or impossible to validate (some may have been Russian disinformation to damage Trump), as had the many other stories circulated by Trump opponents during the election.

Yet on 20 March 2017, FBI Director Comey’s testimony to the House Intelligence Committee clearly stated that they had grounds to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia. This led to the appointment of Special Prosecutor Mueller, who continued this political operation (feeding leaks to journalists), until eventually admitting that he had nothing showing collusion – but lots of innuendoes, some blatantly fake.

Presidential administrations have the greatest strength at the start, during the first golden year. RussiaGate consumed much of Team Trump’s attention, tarnished its reputation with the public, and provided its foes with an almost unlimited supply of (mostly fake) dirt to throw.

Now you’re guilty until proven innocent

The presumption of innocence is a fundamental part of western law going back to the sixth century’s Code of Justinian. It is a casualty of Mueller’s hunt for Trump. McCarthy explains that this is perhaps the most dangerous precedent from RussiaGate.

“{T}he most indecorous aspect of the report prepared by Robert Mueller’s staff of Democratic partisans is its constitutionally repugnant shifting of the burden of proof. If you are a Trump associate, the prosecutor won’t leave it at ‘we have insufficient evidence to charge a crime, so we remain mum,’ as prosecutors are supposed to do.

“Mueller’s approach is to taint with innuendo – exactly what a prosecutor is not supposed to do. Not ‘we don’t have proof to charge a crime’; Mueller’s staff says, in effect, ‘We can’t exonerate you – there are unanswered questions here’ – as if it were an American’s burden to prove his innocence rather than the prosecutor’s to establish wrongdoing.”

Leftists chortle with glee that Mueller did not exonerate Trump, oblivious to the certainty that this new weapon eventually will be used against them.

“So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.”
— Padme in Revenge of the Sith.

The Deep State can act without fear of consequences

The list of laws and regulations broken by government officials in the past two years is long. Plus the lies. I will bet that there will be no penalties. The ability to break the law in public for obvious political gain while cheered by the press and applauded by one of the two major parties – that is power.

How long until another president spits on the policies of our ruling elites as Trump did in the 2016 election? As president, he ruled as their faithful satrap. He enacted policies more hostile to Russia than Obama’s (e.g., tighter and broader sanctions). He massively boosted military spending beyond its previous mad peaks. He intensified the war in Afghanistan (US combat deaths have hit a 5-year high). He expanded Africom – the new frontier for foreign wars (two new bases, more involvement in the Tunesian war). All for naught. The Deep State will whip him until it pleases them to stop – pour encourager les autres (to encourage the others).

Conclusions

The Deep State has grown in the shadows for many generations, since WWII or before. Now, like a monster in the Godzilla films, it breaks out into the open to walk the land. That is a sign of its growing confidence. Rightly so, as our apathy and passivity make it powerful, perhaps invulnerable.

RussiaGate is a milestone on the road to a new political regime for America. After a milestone comes …another milestone. The Deep State has crippled a president, a heady triumph. Its people have learned much from the experience about how to use their power – and the public’s acceptance of it.

What are the limits of their power? What are the limits to our acceptance of their extralegal activities? Time will provide answers, as the Deep State acts again and again – on a larger and larger scale. Perhaps the next time we will catch on more quickly. Not that it matters either way, so long as we acquiesce to their machinations.s