A quick primer on the Real Russia Scandal
by digby
For those of you trying to follow along at home, I thought I would offer this very brief primer on what the right wingers are calling "The Real Russia Scandal." In this tale from Bizarroworld, Hillary Clinton was the one working with her dreamboat pal Vladimir Putin to take down Trump by hiring an anti-Trump British lackey named Christopher Steele to be the go-between. He then "delivered" the fake dossier to the FBI which was also working with Clinton by covering up her massive crimes while she was Secretary of State (when she gave away uranium to Russia just like the Rosenbergs, even though they have plenty already.)
This is bad. And let me tell you a couple of things here. Now we know why Schiff and the rest of them are fighting so hard. Now we know why the left-wing Praetorian Guard Democrat media are fighting so hard, trashing [Devin] Nunes, me, you, and others.
Let's walk through this quickly. Who are they trying to protect? Hillary Clinton. Sean, who else are they trying to protect? Barack Obama. His name never comes up. So let me help everybody with this. Loretta Lynch knew about these FISA warrants. [Sally] Yates, the deputy attorney general, the extensions Rod Rosenstein, now the deputy attorney general. He knew. FBI Director Comey, Deputy Director [Andrew] McCabe, [Peter] Strzok, the head of counterintelligence, [Lisa] Page, his girlfriend. Who else would known about these FISA applications and warrants?
Well, let me tell you a little secret. These are counterintelligence efforts. You have to assume the National Security Council (NSC) and the White House knew. Why would the FBI, Justice Department, keep that from the National Security Director in the White House? Why would they keep it from the Deputy Director in the White House? So why would be left out of the president's daily intelligence briefing which I mentioned in March Congress also needs to get a hold of.
I am telling you, we're looking at the FBI, we're looking at the Department of Justice, and we are not looking at all -- at all -- at the White House. Hillary Clinton paid for a warrant. That's the easiest way we can put it. Hillary Clinton colluded with the Russians. But it appears the FBI at the seniormost levels colluded with the Russians too. Whether it was witting or unwitting, it doesn't matter. That's a fact.
So the senior level of the FBI tried to interfere with this election as well. This is why it's such a big deal. Now, I know Republicans are bending over backward saying this has nothing to do with Mueller. It has everything to do with Mueller! Because it makes a transition from the counterintelligence investigation into a criminal investigation after Comey, of all things, confesses to being a leaker. And Mueller is the former FBI director! Those are his people; that is his environment. He's not out there as some independent force.
But I want to get back to Barack Obama. It's his FBI, his Department of Justice, his State Department, his candidate. I cannot believe for a minute that the National Security Council didn't know about this. And to show you how elaborate this is, now that more information is coming out, we haven't even gotten to the incidental collection of intelligence on people, including, by the way, Sessions when he met with and spoke to the Russian ambassador [Sergey Kislyak], Michael Flynn when he spoke to the Russian ambassador, the unmasking and leaking of his name, the record number of unmasking of American citizens in Trump World and so forth and so on. And the American people have been subjected to a massive propaganda and misinformation campaign by the Clinton campaign, by the Obama administration.
Why would the Russians want Donald Trump to be president of the United States when they could everything they want from Hillary Clinton? Whether it's uranium, whether it's undermining defense by cutting military spending, by refusing to secure our border. Why in the world would the Russians want Trump as opposed to Hillary Clinton?