The REAL Interference in the 2016 Election – in a Nutshell

The REAL interference in the 2016 election was by a cabal of Deep Staters, their Five Eyes allies, and Clintonites who invented and trumpeted the LIE that the Russian government had interfered in the election on behalf of Trump, and that the Trump campaign had colluded in this interference in some way that we could uncover if we just looked hard enough. This LIE brilliantly accomplished the purposes of defaming Russia, Assange, and Trump, while detracting attention from the damning content of the DNC and Podesta emails released by Wikileaks - and ultimately from Hillary’s ignominious failure to defeat a clownish opponent. This LIE was also the underlying rationale for efforts to surveil and entrap members of the Trump campaign that amounted to gross interference by the Obama Deep State in domestic politics. These efforts were intended to prevent Trump’s election by leaking to the public the bogus “intelligence” of the Steele dossier – a work of malicious political fantasy disguised as an intelligence product, secretly funded by Hillarys’ campaign and the DNC, and broadly circulated within the Obama administration – and by defaming Trump as the beneficiary of illicit Russian support.

After the election, the intent pivoted to intensive efforts to find and hype any link between the Trump campaign and the Russian government that might be construed as “collusion” with Russian interference, or, failing that, to keep public suspicion alive that such collusion had occurred by prolonging the Mueller investigation as long as possible – to beyond the 2018 elections. Indeed, by the time that the Mueller investigation was initiated, it was already fairly clear to the conspirators that no evidence for Trump collusion was likely to emerge. When such evidence remained elusive, the plot morphed into an effort to demonstrate that Trump had obstructed justice by firing Comey or attempting to fire Mueller – or to unearth any unrelated impropriety committed by Trump that might be construed as a basis for impeachment.

In pursuit of these aims, the Deep Staters shredded the 4th Amendment protections of Trump associates by overtly lying to FISA courts – attesting to the court that the Steele dossier was verifiable “intelligence” - and engaging in promiscuous unmasking of the foreign communications of Trump associates. Strategic illegal leaking was employed to insure that public was kept in perpetual anticipation of damning evidence emerging against Trump. Entrapment schemes coordinated with Five Eyes partners were used to justify a secret counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign. Mueller engineered the indictment of Trump associates on process crimes or crimes wholly extraneous to Russian collusion allegations, the intent being to compel the targets of these indictments to offer up evidence for Trump collusion or obstruction, or evidence for any unrelated impropriety Trump might have committed. The further intent of these indictments was to assure the public that Mueller was hot on the trail of the crime of the century.

Ultimately, Mueller’s report concluded that there was “insufficient evidence” to charge Trump or his associates with collusion with Russian electoral interference – although the report obsessed on innocuous contacts between Trump campaign associates and various Russians. It also covered up the Deep State entrapment schemes that had been run against the Trump campaign – for example, by failing to mention Mifsud’s extensive ties to Western intelligence. Moreover, it simply swallowed whole the underlying Deep State LIE that the Russian government had interfered on Trump’s behalf – avoiding the most obvious measures for vetting this claim, such as interviewing Assange or examining the DNC computers - and offering an inherently absurd explanation as to how the alleged Russian operative Guccifer 2.0 (clearly a creation of our Deep State) had transferred the purloined DNC emails to Wikileaks. With respect to obstruction charges against Trump, Mueller stated that his investigation “had not exonerated” Trump on these charges – in this way keeping alive an avenue for Democrats to pursue impeachment.

A number of members of the Democratic Party have functioned as co-conspirators in this seditious plot from the first, relentlessly hyping every groundless suspicion of Trump collusion. They have used congressional investigations to further underline the “Russian interference” narrative by fomenting an idiotic obsession with the allegedly malign, “chaos inducing” social media activities of the Internet Research Agency and other “Russian trolls” – in the process, promoting contemptible efforts to ban or marginalize social media commentary that allegedly spreads “disinformation”. Over half of the House Democrats favor pursuing an impeachment inquiry against Trump targeting Trump’s alleged obstruction – even though the investigation which Trump allegedly obstructed was of a maliciously-concocted fantasy crime, and even though Trump was largely cooperative in providing Muller with a massive pile of documentation and access to numerous witnesses. And apparently it hasn’t occurred to them to express a measure of regret or contrition for having spent years painting Trump as a traitor on wholly specious grounds.

If Barr and Durham are at least half-way competent, this scheme is about to be unraveled publicly – and future indictments of Obama officials will make it impossible for MSM to ignore these developments. However, whether Barr will debunk the “Russian interference” underlying the whole edifice of lies is somewhat doubtful, as Republicans traditionally are Russophobic and despise Assange. The most enduring and dangerous legacy of this seditious plot may be a Second Cold War, and the fact that an entire new generation of “liberal” Americans has been brainwashed to hate Russia and Russians.

The Deep State operatives, the politicians, and the MSM propagandists who have driven this carnival of mindless hysteria for 3 years are due for a reckoning. Let it come soon.

Even if Trump is not re-elected, the blowback from this fiasco will likely impair the chances of Democrats in the 2020 House and Senate elections. And the Dems will have no one to blame but themselves. They could have functioned as honest public servants by focusing on Trump’s often incoherent and mean-spirited Republican policies – but instead chose to wallow in the malicious and wholly bogus sty of Russiagate.

A few highly perceptive journalists were onto this massive deception from its very inception. Take a look at these prescient essays written by Patrick Lawrence and Alexander Mercouris prior to the 2016 election:

https://www.salon.com/2016/07/25/shades_of_the_cold_war_how_the_dnc_fabr...

https://theduran.com/us-intelligence-meddles-us-presidential-election-ba...

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Raggedy Ann's picture

The Deep State operatives, the politicians, and the MSM propagandists who have driven this carnival of mindless hysteria for 3 years are due for a reckoning. Let it come soon.

Highly doubtful! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

@Raggedy Ann I'm more optimistic. The scuttlebutt is that Mifsud has given Durham a statement detailing who put him up to his interactions with Papadopoulos, and why.

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Mark F. McCarty

Raggedy Ann's picture

@veganmark
We'll see what happens, but I don't expect much. I'm jaded, at this point.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

earthling1's picture

of the whole sordid affair, Veganmark.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1 "Sordid" is the right adjective!

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Mark F. McCarty

Bisbonian's picture

@veganmark , from the DNC emails, we know that the DNC was "elevating" Trump in the campaign, to make him a "pied piper" candidate. In other words, the DNC were the ones meddling in his campaign.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

I'm hoping that the Bolton don't blow up the planet.
I'm more concerned that the FBI, CIA, NSA, et al are now comfortable with turning their guns on domestic policy affairs. As Barr said, this would dwarf Watergate. The Obama/Clinton folks who created this, need to unveiled & tried for their crimes. We will see if Trump has the stones for that fight.

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chuck utzman

TULSI 2020

Once no proof emerged of any direct collusion between Trump and Russians, Russiagate has more or less evolved replicating conspiracies Nazis had a grand Jewish conspiracy to not only harm Germany but also destroy European civilization (the "liberal rules based democracies")

What could be more corroding to a democracy where people believe that everything is under the influence of a hostile foreign power. Voting is suspect, dissenting opinions are suspect (like BLM), and every failure is automatically first attributed to the hostile foreign power. In a way, the society of the novel 1984 is one shaped by its version of Russiagate.

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

I just read again how he is pushing the right wing nationalist movement across Europe and here. The things people believe about him are incredible. And insane! I keep wanting to tell them to learn something history about not only Russia, but Putin's himself and his history.

The truth about the Russia Gate saga is there for everyone to see and yet they think the truth about it is the real conspiracy theory. Summers has a front page diary on it today and I just laughed while reading it. Barr is only going through the motions because he is protecting Trump and because Trump hates Obama so much. Yeah don't let facts get in your way, just stick with the false accusations that Russia was the reason Her lost. The Mueller report says that!

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

real interference with the 2016 election. The real interference with the 2016 election was the Hillary campaign, the DNC, establishment media and whomever doing all they could to rig the primary against Sanders. Once Sanders did not get the nomination, I don't know if anything interfered with the election, except that establishment media and establishment politicians, both Republican and Democrat, did their best to ensure that Hillary, not Trump got elected.

I certainly could be misremembering, but as I recall, the drum beat about Russia was not epidemic in the US until after election night.

ETA: Apologies for the mixed metaphor.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@HenryAWallace Russian xenophobia started to get going after the violent overthrow in Ukraine in 2014. And really picked up after Hillary made it an issue in the presidential debates. It was worse in Europe before the election with the high point that Soros claimed that Russia was deliberately creating the immigration crisis in Europe and that Russia was worse than ISIS. Of course it went exponentially insane after the election. There was the beginnings though. Here is Marcy Wheeler of all people attacking a NYTimes article in June of 2016 which blamed Putin for anti-TPP movement.

In Attempted Hit Piece, NYT Makes Putin Hero of Defeating TPP
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/09/03/attempted-hit-piece-nyt-ma...

But the most remarkable stunt in this 5,000 screed is taking Wikileaks’ efforts to show policies a great many people believe are counterproductive — most importantly, passing trade deals that benefit corporations while hurting real people, but also weakening other strong hands in climate change negotiations — and insinuating they might be a Putinesque plot.

But I agree the worse interference was done by the Hillary, the DNC, and state parties (voter database changes in Brooklyn for example). And disinformation from media about the primaries. I remember one highly touted poll had Hillary winning (showing the decline of Bernie) by double digits in Oregon, and Bernie won it by double digits. Anybody remember Podesta's Italian dinner party (from Wikileaks) that had a who-is-who of major media names attending?

The thing for right now is that the gang that stole for Hillary are still in positions of power within the DNC and state parties. So a repeat of 2016?

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snoopydawg's picture

@MrWebster

I think it started even before Obama's Ukraine coup in 2014 when he thought that we'd be able to park our navy in Crimea and Putin being okay with it. One reason for the coup was to remove a friendly government next to Russia and install our own puppet that would do our bidding and open the country to outside interests which he did.

But looky there. This was back when Marcy was sane and hadn't bought into Russia Gate yet. I'd love to tweet this out to her and ask her what happened?

Thanks. Good commentary in the comments too. I wonder what happened to souixrose? She hasn't been around for some time.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Roy Blakeley's picture

@snoopydawg to justify our absurd military spending and Russia is a Goldilocks enemy, big enough to be a semi-credible threat but small enough that Wall St. is willing to forego profits from trading with Russia. Russia was our anointed enemy long before the 2016 election as others have pointed out, plus the US is still pissed off that Putin did not sell Russia out like Yeltsin. They thought they had another puppet and he turned out not to be.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Roy Blakeley

After Putin put a stop to our asset stripping Russia he became the new bad guy because our oligarchs had bigger plans for what would happen to Russia. Putin came in and cleaned out all the crooked oligarchs and gave them an ultimatum. Work with me or go to prison. Clinton and his buddies had put lots of effort into remaking Russia into a clone of the USA.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

lotlizard's picture

@HenryAWallace  
Jake Tapper interviews Kellyanne Conway and Robby Mook. And unlike usual network TV, they actually get to answer without being interrupted.

Now it’s August 2019 and it’s instructive to view or re-view.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTpOIMIhsUI]

Speaking for the Democrats, Robby Mook is already pushing the untruths about “fake news” having swung the election and “17 intelligence agencies” agreeing “foreign aggressor” Russia hacked the DNC server.

Three years later, that’s still their story and they’re sticking to it . . .

You know what? As bad as Trump is, I’m still glad that Robby Mook and who and what he represents lost.

(Slightly updated, this is the same comment that I made almost exactly one year ago, here:)
https://caucus99percent.com/comment/364464#comment-364464

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@HenryAWallace

Obama openly mocked Trump when Trump suggested someone might Scooby Dooby Doo the election results. Those assholes at Vox covered it gleefully.

But there had been escalating sabre rattling at Russia for a while already by then. I remember noticing it in early 2015 and starting to complain about how the Democrats were doing *everything* wrong and many things dangerous and were still going to act like they were entitled to my vote in 2016.

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Would you like to tell us something we don't know?

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Mary Bennett

travelerxxx's picture

@Nastarana

Regulars here indeed know it. However, it's nice to have things so neatly wrapped up. Further, there are always passers-by and lurkers who may have been exposed to nothing but the mass media Russia!!! propaganda. It's a good synopsis and proper to post it.

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@Nastarana I used to be able to post at Medium - where this article would have been more useful - but I was banned there.

https://caucus99percent.com/content/i-demand-explanation-mediumcom-regar...

When I post here, it's not intended solely for the members of this community - these essays can be distributed on social media. Plus I know that they won't be suppressed!

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Mark F. McCarty

Lookout's picture

Read (or re-read) Bob in Portland's excellent background piece...

Mueller has presided over many cases where it's been important for the prosecutor to overlook the fingerprints of the CIA. He prosecuted what was known in the San Francisco Bay Area as the "drug tug" case which had connections to an island in Panama. It was a drug smuggling case and had tentacles into things like bank frauds in Northern California. He prosecuted Manuel Noriega's drug-smuggling without noticing Oliver North's drug-smuggling, arms running and money laundering through Panama as a part of Iran-contra.

Mueller would invariably land on cases with Deep State intelligence connections.

https://caucus99percent.com/content/what-mueller-wont-find

Nice review and summary VM.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout VERY interesting insight. Mueller's task was not only to prepare Trump for impeachment, but to cover up the Deep State cabal that led to Mueller's probe.

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Mark F. McCarty

earthling1's picture

as indicated by your essay, is the astounding damage done to the American people and our country by Her loss and and the resulting shenanigans.
The $25 million for the Mueller investigation is small potatoes compared to the precipice of nuclear annihilation and/or climate catastrophe we currently find ourselves, loss of certain freedoms involving internet use, loss of whistleblower protections, expanded wars in opposition to Trumps promise to extricate us from them, and the continuing march to "Full Spectrum Dominance" the world over.
I can't help wondering what our country would look like today had the DNC and party leaders, including every Superdelegate, who are equally at fault, stood back and took a sobering look at their failure to retain the working class support so missing from the 2016 elections.
And they continue to plummet down the rabbit hole. And far beyond earshot of those of us with practicle ideas and who truly care about our collective future on this blue orb.
The current leadership of the Democrat Party have made the world a much more dangerous place for all of humanity.
How have they become the greatest menace to us and our children?
Thanks again, Mark, for a concise explanation of what they have done.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1 and well known to all of us here, this isn't partisan. Not at all. Trump can promise all he wants to, just like obummer and all the rest, but ending our wars is not an option for any of them. Democrats are indeed toxic but I'm sorry, repugnants are hardly any better. And Vladimir Putin was dead on when he said policy will NOT change whoever is elected. And it does not. Personally I almost hope Biden or whoever the nominated democratic shill does win and illustrates that for us but then again that's normal now, it won't wake up nearly enough voters to make a difference, it hasn't yet, not from what my own lyin eyes see. The belief that it changes anything is almost stunning to see in a country that should damned well know better by this late date.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur