VDH on Pious Hypocrisy

[tonyz]

VDH clearly identifies the Clapper, Brennan, Comey, McCabe hypocrisy - a good read.

Mueller Investigation Was Driven by Pious Hypocrisy
April 25, 2019
Victor Davis Hanson

Special counsel Robert Mueller's two-year, $30 million, 448-page report did not find collusion between Donald Trump and Russia.

Despite compiling private allegations of loud and obnoxious Trump behavior, Mueller also concluded that there was not any actionable case of obstruction of justice by the president. It would have been hard in any case to find that Trump obstructed Mueller's investigation of an alleged crime.


One, there was never a crime of collusion. Mueller early on in his endeavors must have realized that truth, but he pressed ahead anyway. It is almost impossible to prove obstruction of nothing.

Two, Trump cooperated with the investigation. He waived executive privilege. He turned over more than 1 million pages of administrative documents. He allowed then-White House counsel Don McGahn to submit to over 30 hours of questioning by Mueller's lawyers.

Three, anyone targeted by a massive investigation who knows he is innocent of an alleged crime is bound to become frustrated over a seemingly never-ending inquisition.

Trump's reported periodic rages at the Muller investigation are regrettable but not unnatural, given that Mueller expended a huge amount of government resources to confirm what many knew at the outset: that there was never any collusion with the Russian government to warp the 2016 election.

Yet Mueller's team went down every blind alley relating to its investigation -- except where Obama-era officials were likely culpable for relevant unethical or illegal behavior.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants were integral to Mueller's investigations. But there is no mention of how the FISA court was deceived by not being told that the chief evidence used to obtain the warrants was an unverified dossier paid for in part by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Some of the collusion narrative Muller examined was based on FBI informants' unverified stories. Yet strangely, the Mueller team did not investigate whether it was legal in the first place for the FBI, possibly with CIA help, to use informants to spy on a presidential campaign.

Former FBI Director James Comey figures into the Mueller report. But there is no curiosity about whether he broke the law in leaking what may well have been four classified memos of private presidential conversations to the press for the purpose of forcing an appointment of a special counsel.

The Christopher Steele dossier likewise makes an appearance in the Mueller report. But for a team investigating the alleged collusion of foreigners in a U.S. election, there is silence about the salient fact that Steele, a foreign national, enlisted other foreign nationals to dig up dirt on Trump to weaken his election chances -- with part of the funding for this research provided by the Clinton campaign and the DNC.

What bothers many Americans about the collusion hoax is the accompanying sanctimony of the so-called investigators. The Mueller team could have helped itself had it just noted that much of the evidence it looked at was a product of Obama-era officials' unethical or illegal behavior.

Comey wrote a memoir, "A Higher Loyalty." Its eponymous themes are Comey's own ethics and principles. But Comey may well have misled the FISA court and possibly lied under oath to a House committee. He was not candid with federal investigators and leaked confidential and classified government memos.

Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe also wrote a memoir, "The Threat." Its argument is that FBI kingpins such as McCabe protect America from dangers such as Donald Trump. But McCabe himself is under criminal referral for lying to federal investigators. His sworn congressional testimony cannot be reconciled with Comey's. McCabe also likely misled the FISA court. And he apparently contemplated staging a near-coup to remove an elected president through the deliberate misuse of the 25th Amendment.

Former CIA Director John Brennan is a paid analyst for MSNBC who often railed about Trump's "treason" and predicted his indictment. Yet Brennan himself has lied under oath to Congress on two occasions. He likely misled Congress about his role in trafficking in the Steele dossiers. And Brennan's CIA may well have helped the FBI use informants abroad to entrap Trump campaign aides in efforts to find dirt on Trump.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is a CNN analyst who often predicted that a supposedly treasonous Trump would be indicted. Clapper, too, has lied to Congress under oath. He once denied and then admitted to leaking confidential documents.

The problem with the Muller investigation, and with former intelligence officials such as Brennan, Clapper, Comey and McCabe, is pious hypocrisy. Those who have lectured America on Trump's unproven crimes have written books and appeared on TV to publicize their own superior virtue. Yet they themselves have engaged in all sorts of unethical and illegal behavior.

The only mystery left is whether our elite investigators actually believe their own delusions. Or were they constantly broadcasting their virtue as a preventive defense against growing evidence of their own moral lapses?

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/ar...sy_140150.html

(C) 2019 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His latest book is The Savior Generals from BloomsburyBooks. You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com.

[mark46th]

The Mueller investigation was a smoke screen to protect Obama and Hillary from being investigated and indicted. I hope AG Barr has the courage to go after them. Hillary has already admitted to multiple felonies.

[tonyz]

Holder, Lynch and Yates got some ‘splainin to do...under oath...so does Samantha Power, Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett and Clinton’s chief of staff Mills, Houma Abadine, and many, many others. Especially those named in OP !

[Box]

Imagine yourself on the set of "Jeopardy!" - you've just bet it all on the Daily
Double - Alex Tebek slowly reads off the following list of names:

Holder, Lynch, Yates, Power, Rice, Jarrett, Mills, Abadine, Cinton, Obama


You are the first to buzz-in because you already know the answer:
Who are "people that are above the law that will never see the inside of a courtroom"


The crowd goes wild - you throw your hands in the air in victory - because at least if the nations leaders are openly corrupt and dishonest, you still won a few bucks on a TV game show - as well as a beautiful revolving bookshelf, built entirely of fresh cut Carolina Pine – The Jeopardy Board Game Deluxe Home Edition – and a Brand 14-Portable Color TV.

[SouthernDZ]

I feel you are right. I remember when politics, admittedly more of a game centered on paranoia then an actual discipline, at least had the virtue of well-defined opposing teams, east vs. west or if you prefer, the free world vs. communism. Now it seems to be people whose minds are anchored by reality vs. people whose belief systems are rooted in fantasy.

The untouchables (political left elites) vs. the imminently touchable (the rest of us serfs). My wife won't allow me to watch Hannity any more because, after he and his guests read off the list of charges nightly, I wake up each morning just knowing today was the day Hillary (and the rest of the untouchables you listed) would be making their perp walks. Wrong again. My wife is a pretty smart woman.

Alex, I’ll take “Utopian Fantasies” for a 1,000……

[Box]

Originally Posted by SouthernDZ

Alex, I’ll take “Utopian Fantasies” for a 1,000……

Your answer is:
cow farts
elimination of nuclear power
a 27 dollar an hour living wage for fast food drive through window attendants
kale


DING DING DING
Alex, what are things that liberals put in children's books.

Correct - whats your next category?
Alex, I'll take gardening lingo for a thousand....
Your answer is:
This term for a long-handled gardening tool can also mean an immoral pleasure seeker.

RING RING RING
ALEX, what is a hoe?

Alex: No. The answer is "rake" but I like the way you think.

[PSM]

Originally Posted by SouthernDZ

My wife won't allow me to watch Hannity any more because, after he and his guests read off the list of charges nightly, I wake up each morning just knowing today was the day Hillary (and the rest of the untouchables you listed) would be making their perp walks. Wrong again. My wife is a pretty smart woman.

Almost exactly the same here. Plus he spends (wastes) 20 minutes of about 50 minutes of airtime on a monolog that is almost the same every single night. I want to hear the guests, but NO, he constantly interrupts them just as they are about to make their point. He just had DJT on and in the first couple minutes Sean interrupted him several times then he stopped. I'll bet good money that the producer jumped in his ear and told him to shut up.

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by tonyz

Yet Mueller's team went down every blind alley relating to its investigation -- except where Obama-era officials were likely culpable for relevant unethical or illegal behavior.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants were integral to Mueller's investigations. But there is no mention of how the FISA court was deceived by not being told that the chief evidence used to obtain the warrants was an unverified dossier paid for in part by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Some of the collusion narrative Muller examined was based on FBI informants' unverified stories. Yet strangely, the Mueller team did not investigate whether it was legal in the first place for the FBI, possibly with CIA help, to use informants to spy on a presidential campaign.

Former FBI Director James Comey figures into the Mueller report. But there is no curiosity about whether he broke the law in leaking what may well have been four classified memos of private presidential conversations to the press for the purpose of forcing an appointment of a special counsel.

The Christopher Steele dossier likewise makes an appearance in the Mueller report. But for a team investigating the alleged collusion of foreigners in a U.S. election, there is silence about the salient fact that Steele, a foreign national, enlisted other foreign nationals to dig up dirt on Trump to weaken his election chances -- with part of the funding for this research provided by the Clinton campaign and the DNC.

What bothers many Americans about the collusion hoax is the accompanying sanctimony of the so-called investigators. The Mueller team could have helped itself had it just noted that much of the evidence it looked at was a product of Obama-era officials' unethical or illegal behavior.

Comey wrote a memoir, "A Higher Loyalty." Its eponymous themes are Comey's own ethics and principles. But Comey may well have misled the FISA court and possibly lied under oath to a House committee. He was not candid with federal investigators and leaked confidential and classified government memos.

Former CIA Director John Brennan is a paid analyst for MSNBC who often railed about Trump's "treason" and predicted his indictment. Yet Brennan himself has lied under oath to Congress on two occasions. He likely misled Congress about his role in trafficking in the Steele dossiers. And Brennan's CIA may well have helped the FBI use informants abroad to entrap Trump campaign aides in efforts to find dirt on Trump.

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is a CNN analyst who often predicted that a supposedly treasonous Trump would be indicted. Clapper, too, has lied to Congress under oath. He once denied and then admitted to leaking confidential documents.

The above is the reason my sports bet is on the House (via Pelosi's hammer) deciding not to press for impeachment ultimately and "move on and let the nation heal."

If they did, all the above quoted would get laid on the table as evidence in the Senate, and I'm pretty sure they do not want to play THAT tape to the end. Unless they go "damn the torpedoed 2020 campaign, full retard ahead!"

[tonyz]

Originally Posted by Badger52

The above is the reason my sports bet is on the House (via Pelosi's hammer) deciding not to press for impeachment ultimately and "move on and let the nation heal."

If they did, all the above quoted would get laid on the table as evidence in the Senate, and I'm pretty sure they do not want to play THAT tape to the end. Unless they go "damn the torpedoed 2020 campaign, full retard ahead!"

The truth would likely be much, much, more damaging to Dems than any kompromat !

However...Pelosi, Harris, Booker, Biden, Swalwell, Gillibrand, Beto and Bernie et al are always capable of going full retard.