In the 'Russia' Investigation, Democrats, Spooks and Media Have Most to Fear

Let's get a few things straight: Of course the Russians tried to meddle in our election; so do other countries, and so do we in theirs, sometimes openly, sometimes covertly. Of course members of the incoming administration met with and spoke with Russians; that's their job. Further, Russia is no longer an enemy of the United States, in the sense that the Soviet Union was (I was there when it died); rather, it's an adversary with many shared interests with the U.S., as well as areas of competition and concern. To spin this into a "Trump/Flynn/Whoever was open to Russian blackmail" is a lie that only a useful idiot would believe.

What if Russian interference with our election was aimed at the FBI, the CIA and the Obama administration?

The other shoe was dropped by the Washington Post. Finally we have details of an alleged email exchange showing influential liberals trusting in then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch to corral an inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s email practices. According to the Post, this email appears not to exist. It was cited in a secret Russian intelligence document that inspired FBI chief James Comey to usurp the attorney general’s role and publicly clear Mrs. Clinton of intelligence mishandling. Allegedly, he feared the real email (which didn’t exist) would surface and discredit any Justice Department announcement clearing Mrs. Clinton.

Are you now thinking of the Trump dossier circulated by former British agent Christopher Steele, which also felt like a Russian plant? While the political circus in Washington has focused on purloined Democratic emails and fake news spread during the election by Russian bots, the more effective part of Moscow’s effort may have been planting fake leads to prod U.S. enforcement and intelligence agencies to intervene disruptively in the campaign.

This also should shed new light on today’s anti-Trump leakers in the intelligence agencies: They may be the real unwitting agents of Russian influence.

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[Mueller] needs to follow the trail right where it heads: into the National Security Agency, the CIA, the newsrooms of the New York Times and the Washington Post, and even the Obama White House itself. Then let's see who the real threat to our democracy is.