by Doug Wead
4. https://rightwingnews.com/top-news/trump-nemesis-rosie-odonnell-slammed-speculating-whether-donalds-son-barron-10-autistic/
5. https://dailycaller.com/2017/01/23/comedy-central-guy-calls-barron-trump-a-date-rapist-to-be-with-a-small-pp/
6. https://dailycaller.com/2017/01/23/comedy-central-guy-calls-barron-trump-a-date-rapist-to-be-with-a-small-pp/
7. https://rightwingnews.com/donald-trump/snl-writer-posts-tweet-mocking-10-yr-old-barron-trump-americas-first-homeschool-shooter/
8. https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/02/nyt-reprimands-reporter-for-calling-melania-trump-a-hooker-234962
9. https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/02/nyt-reprimands-reporter-for-calling-melania-trump-a-hooker-234962
10. https://www.snopes.com/news/2017/04/12/daily-mail-melania-trump-libel/
11. https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/03/16/rapper-threatens-to-make-a-sex-slave-of-melania-trump/
12. https://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2017/04/15/the-7-worst-liberal-attacks-on-donald-trumps-family-n2313730
13. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/08/too-far-the-daily-show-plugs-hashtag-donaldtrumpwantstobanghisdaughter/
14. https://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2017/04/15/the-7-worst-liberal-attacks-on-donald-trumps-family-n2313730
15. https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tom-blumer/2017/03/21/chelsea-handler-upset-trump-familys-jeans-will-be-inherited-unborn
16. https://downtrend.com/71superb/chelsea-handler-calls-melania-and-baron-trump-among-the-dumbest-people-in-the-world/
17. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/05/30/kathy-griffin-apologizes-for-severed-donald-trump-head-photo-after-backlash/
18. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/johnny-depp-when-was-the-last-time-an-actor-assassinated-a-president-195265/
19. https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/media-trump-hatred-coverage/
20. https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/media-trump-hatred-coverage/
21. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-26/billionaire-donors-led-by-soros-simons-favor-clinton-over-trump
22. www.marketwatch.com/story/obama-claims-ownership-of-uss-economic-recovery-as-he-blasts-trump-2018-09-07
23. https://www.vox.com/world/2018/1/30/16945312/state-of-the-union-2018-isis
24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GzEfh6MiCM&t=60s
25. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jun/19/scott-pelley-cbs-news-anchor-asks-if-gop-shooting-/
26. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2017/01/13/trumps_honeymoon_over_before_it_starts.html#!
27. https://shorensteincenter.org/news-coverage-donald-trumps-first-100-days/
28. https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/media-trump-hatred-coverage/
29. http://thefederalist.com/2018/08/17/screenshots-show-google-shadowbans-conservative-pro-trump-content/
30. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2019/01/24/media_attacks_on_trump_worst_since_lincoln_464236.html
31. Peter Hermann, Keith L. Alexander, and Michael E. Miller, “Protestors Who Destroyed Property on Inauguration Day Were Part of Well-Organized Group,” Washington Post, January 21, 2017.
32. https://www.freep.com/story/news/2018/01/10/pink-pussyhats-feminists-hats-womens-march/1013630001/; see also https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/01/12/pink-pussyhats-of-the-anti-trump-womens-march-are-falling-out-of-favor-the-reason-is-quite-ironic
33. https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/23/entertainment/madonna-white-house/index.html
34. Jim Ryan, “Portland’s Anti-Trump Protest Turns Violent, as Rioters Rampage in Pearl,” The Oregonian, November 10, 2016.
35. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoCyiQeHfZg
36. https://dailycaller.com/2016/11/17/heres-a-list-of-completely-substantiated-and-underreported-attacks-on-trump-supporters/
37. “The Trump Resistance Movement Builds,” BBC News, November 17, 2016.
38. “#Resist,” Know Your Meme, accessed June 11, 2019 at https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/resist
39. Michael Finnegan, “Trump’s Electoral College Win All but Certain, but Hollywood Actors Urge Revolt,” Los Angeles Times, December 15, 2016.
40. Marie Berry and Erica Chenoweth, “Who Made the Women’s March?” in The Resistance: The Dawn of the Anti-Trump Opposition Movement, ed. David S. Meyer and Sidney Tarrow (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018).
41. Liam Stack, “Attack on Alt-Right Leader Has Internet Asking: Is It O.K. to Punch a Nazi?” New York Times, January 21, 2017.
42. https://dailycaller.com/2017/08/14/journalist-accused-of-looking-like-a-white-supremacist-by-anti-fascists/
43. Tom Dickenson, “Meet the Leaders of the Trump Resistance,” Rolling Stone, January 13, 2017.
44. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying (New York: Scribner, 1963).
45. https://video.foxnews.com/v/5291959751001/
46. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/06/24/maxine_waters_the_people_are_going_to_turn_on_trump_enablers.html
11
RUSSIAN ROULETTE
“What they did was treasonous, okay? It was treasonous.”
—DONALD TRUMP1
Some inside the Trump family, and many who had voted for and supported Donald Trump for president, believed that the American corporate media had never really accepted the 2016 election results. Rather than admit that their views and opinions had been rejected by the public, they chose, rather, to promote the idea that the 2016 election was fraudulent. Television anchors and pundits who had predicted the election of Hillary Clinton were now recovering from their shock and contending that they had not been wrong after all. Secretary Clinton would have won, they now suggested, if it had been a fair election. Donald Trump’s victory was the result of a Russian conspiracy to cheat the voters and help him win.
Soon, major media organizations, including CNN and the New York Times, were promoting stories and personalities that were claiming Donald Trump was a Russian spy. If true, this would be the greatest moment of its kind in world history. This would rank with the assassination of Julius Caesar, the French Revolution, and the landing of a man on the moon.
There was no shortage of former Obama government officials willing to give this remarkable theory credence. Citing a New York Times report, one commentator noted that “a former Department of Justice spokesman believes this may prove once and for all that Vladimir Putin is Trump’s handler, and Donald Trump is a Russian spy.”2
This was, of course, a ridiculous story. In their international travels, the Trump children were often pulled aside by heads of state. “Please tell your father how sorry we are that he is going through this Russian nonsense,” they would say. “Tell him we are thinking of him.”3
These stories gave me a very different perspective. Of course, the head of state of any nation, friend or foe, would immediately want to know the answer to this question. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have called in the head of Mossad the very day the New York Times ran their first story. Netanyahu, who had personally known the Trumps for years, would have asked the head of Mossad, “What is going on here?”
In fact, the heads of state of France, the United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia, or any nation in the world would want to know. Our enemies and rivals in China, North Korea, and Iran had to know. Imagine the ramifications for trade and mutual defense. The directors of all of the world’s 120 intelligence agencies, from the American CIA to the French DGSE, would be expected to explain this story to the leaders of their countries. The American media could drag the discussion out for two years, to create as much political damage as possible, but no world leader could let a single day pass without knowing the truth behind this American media conspiracy theory.
One can only imagine the laughter in the Kremlin when Vladimir Putin slid a copy of the New York Times down the conference table before his assembled intelligence leaders. “Well, which one of you did this?”
The
fact was that in the years leading up to the 2016 election the Clinton campaign had far more links to Russia than anything the inventive American national media could find with Trump. No one was suggesting that Clinton was a Russian spy; they were just questioning her integrity. In 2010, the US State Department, headed by Secretary of State Clinton, had signed off on permission for a Russian company to purchase a Canadian company named Uranium One. Since the Canadian company owned significant mining rights in the United States, it required US approval.4
Five years later, the Russian government decided to “acquire a majority stake” in the company.5 Weeks later, a Russian investment bank with ties to the Kremlin had paid the Democratic nominee’s husband, Bill Clinton, $500,000 to give a speech.6 What followed was a massive infusion of money to the Clinton Foundation. The money came from Russian oligarchs and friends of President Putin. Before they were done, the Russians had donated $145 million to the Clinton Foundation.7 The media virtually ignored the story.8
Instead, night after night, for two years, the major television networks led with what they promised viewers would be the most astonishing story in world history. Donald Trump, the American president, was a Russian spy. The most tangible “proof” of this stunning moment in history, promoted with a straight face by anchors and pundits on American television, was an investigation that revealed that persons and organizations in Russia had purchased $200,000 worth of Facebook ads harmful to the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Never mind the reports that the founder of Facebook and all of its top stockholders, officers, and executives had openly supported Hillary Clinton for president and had donated thousands of dollars to the Clinton Foundation. An article in The Hill proclaimed that “Clinton is largest beneficiary of Facebook donations.”9
ORIGINS OF THE RUSSIAN CONSPIRACY THEORY
In July 2016, FBI director James Comey held a press conference in which he declared the end of the inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email servers. She had used the private servers for government business and then destroyed their contents after they had been subpoenaed. Her own employees had been instructed to smash and destroy their cell phones with hammers. The suspicion of critics was that Clinton had been operating a massive pay-to-play scheme. Nations and companies would donate millions to the Clinton Foundation and get special favors in return.
Comey’s investigation had been called “Midyear Exam.” In the press conference, Director Comey took the unusual step of declaring that there was nothing to prosecute. Usually this was a decision left to officials in the Justice Department, not the director of the FBI.
Later that month, FBI investigators, some who had worked on “Midyear Exam” were reassigned to a counterintelligence investigation called “Crossfire Hurricane”—an investigation into the Trump campaign and possible collusion with the Russian government. Quite a contrast in names, “Midyear Exam” versus “Crossfire Hurricane.”
“I was born in a crossfire hurricane” is the opening lyric of the Rolling Stones song “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Many Trump campaign rallies end with the Rolling Stones song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
Notably, one of the FBI investigators was Peter Strzok, deputy assistant director of the Counterintelligence Division. He had served on “Midyear Exam” and would later join the team of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Strzok was having an extramarital affair with an FBI colleague named Lisa Page. She was an FBI attorney who also worked on both investigations. Strzok was removed from Mueller’s staff after a report from the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General revealed private text messages between Strzok and Page deriding Donald Trump and his supporters. Strzok and Page’s personal relationship also violated FBI employee rules.10
In an August 15, 2016, text message, Strzok told Page: “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s [Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the FBI] office that there’s no way Trump gets elected—but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”11
Later, in congressional testimony, Strzok and Page would argue that they were debating the speed of the Trump-Russia investigation. If Trump were not elected, they could take their time and not spook the Russians. But could they take that chance? What if Trump were elected and the Trump staffers who may have colluded with Russia were given positions in the new administration?
When the texts became publicly known, they both denied that they were referring to a plot to go after the president-elect.12
Following the release of the embarrassing texts between Strzok and Page, the FBI dug in hard, refusing to release any further information demanded by Congress. It was information sensitive to national intelligence, they insisted. This only aroused greater congressional and public curiosity. While Fox News covered the unfolding drama, most of the national media ignored the story.
When yet another Strzok-Page text became public, it was harder to avoid the obvious. “Just went to a Southern Virginia Walmart,” Strzok wrote to his girlfriend, Page. “I could SMELL the Trump support.”13 “Smell” was written in capital letters. Coming from such bias, the “insurance policy” now sounded ominous.
JOHN McCAIN STRIKES BACK
Shortly after Trump’s November 2016 victory, US senator John McCain, the senior Republican from Arizona, attended an international security conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was a regularly scheduled conference he had attended before. While there, McCain was approached by Sir Andrew Wood, a retired British diplomat. Wood told Senator McCain and one of his associates about a report “that Wood had not read and conceded was mostly raw, unverified intelligence.” It had been prepared by a former MI6 officer named Christopher Steele. McCain observed, “This was too strange a scenario to believe, something out of a le Carré novel.”14
In his book The Restless Wave, McCain described the bizarre scene. “Our impromptu meeting felt charged with a strange intensity. No one wise-cracked to lighten the mood. We spoke in lowered voices. The room was dimly lit, and the atmosphere was eerie. Wood described Steele’s research in general terms. He had not read it himself, but vouched for Steele’s credibility. I was taken aback. They were shocking allegations.”15
McCain arranged for his associate David Kramer, a former State Department official, to travel to London to meet with Steele. Kramer was working at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University at that time. Kramer met with the former MI6 officer in England and deemed him credible. The senator agreed to receive a copy of the now infamous Christopher Steele dossier.
Today it is widely reported that Steele had been paid to put together his famous dossier by GPS, an opposition research organization created by a former Wall Street Journal reporter. GPS was paid for the research by Perkins Coie, a powerful law firm contracted by both the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Observers concluded that the Clinton campaign used the intermediaries of Perkins Coie and GPS to pay Steele for the dossier.
We don’t know if McCain was given a paper copy or perhaps a flash drive, but we do know it took a physical form since, the senator states, he kept the dossier in a safe until he could deliver it to James Comey, the director of the FBI. Why not just send an email, since it was just opposition research and not classified information? Perhaps all the cloak-and-dagger international travel made the dossier more credible?16
The fact was, while Senator McCain’s associate Kramer made his exciting trip to England to pick up the Steele dossier, the file had already been in the United States for months. Steele had first given the dossier to an FBI official stationed in Rome, Italy, in August 2016.
Weeks later Steele shopped the dossier to American news outlets and continued to do so throughout the fall of 2016, trying to have it published before the election. Steele had even given it to a State Department employee in October. None of the news outlets ran with the unverified in
formation.
The dossier included salacious, unverified stories of Trump supposedly cavorting with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel. There were descriptions of “golden showers,” urinating on the bed that Obama had once used. Supposedly the Russians were holding this material and would be able to use it to blackmail the American billionaire turned politician.
There was no proof to any of the allegations, and many of the details surrounding the narrative were easily proven false. After meeting with Steele in October, Kathleen Kavelec, Obama’s State Department deputy assistant secretary, sent officials at the FBI an email questioning Steele’s credibility and pointing out claims in his research that were likely false.
THE CALCULATIONS OF JAMES COMEY
Meanwhile, the FBI leadership, apparently convinced that Hillary Clinton was headed toward election as the next president of the United States, used the Steele dossier for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant request to the FISA court on October 21, 2016.
Director James Comey was well aware of the Steele dossier. Comey had it on his mind after the surprise election upset, when he started to interact with the new, president-elect. According to James Baker, the FBI general counsel at the time, Comey and Baker were concerned that briefing president-elect Trump on the dossier would evoke actions taken decades ago by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who had a reputation for keeping files on prominent people and using them as blackmail when it suited him.17
Even so, Comey went forward.
During presidential transitions, the time between the general election and the inauguration, US intelligence agencies start to brief the president-elect along with the outgoing president. It is a standard procedure, designed to make sure the new president is up to speed the moment he or she is sworn into office.