The ‘Trump Is A Russian Plant!’ Case Is Falling Apart. Here Are 4 Things You Need To Know.
It’s now been months upon months of speculation about the supposedly
nefarious connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian
government. Democrats have relied on Trump begging Russian dictator
Vladimir Putin publicly to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails, connections between
former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and the Russian government,
and friendliness between Trump advisor General Michael Flynn and the
Russians in order to suggest that Putin “hacked the election” on Trump’s
behalf. They’ve also relied on various media reports suggesting that the
intelligence community was participating in some sort of sophisticated
surveillance operation that caught up Trump associates in chats with the
Russian government.
There’s a lot of smoke.
VIDEONo evidence yet of Trump team, Russia collusion -U.S. lawmaker
Here’s the problem: there’s no fire.
At all.
We’re now six months in. Have we seen a single piece of actually
incriminating evidence suggesting that Putin “hacked the election” on
Trump’s behalf? Or have we just seen rumors and innuendos, all disowned
in the ninth paragraph of a New York Times report headlining Trump-Russia
contacts?
Here’s what we actually know.
1. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Said There
Was No Evidence of Collusion. Speaking with NBC’s Chuck Todd, Clapper
was asked if there was evidence of collusion. Clapper: “Not to my knowledge.”
According to Clapper, collusion or collaboration or uncovered information did
not exist while he was there – i.e. up until January 20th. As Matt Taibbi of
Rolling Stone says, “This is the former Director of National Intelligence
telling all of us that as of 12:01 a.m. on January 20th, when he left government,
the intelligence agencies had no evidence of collusion between Donald Trump’s
campaign and the government of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.” Clapper also told
ABC News, “There was no evidence whatsoever, at the time, of collusion
between the Trump campaign and the Russians.”
2. Members of Trump’s Campaign Talked To The Russians – But There’s
No Proof of Wrongdoing.There have been multiple media reports suggesting
that the intelligence community knew that Trump associates were talking with
the Russians. Each and every one of those reports contains the information
that there’s no evidence that anybody did anything wrong, and that campaign
officials often speak with foreign officials. As Andrew McCarthy of National
Review notes, The New York Times ran with a hot-button piece titled,
“Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry into Trump Associates” the
day before Trump’s inauguration. The story contained this little detail, buried
down in the article: “It is not clear whether the intercepted communications had
anything to do with Mr. Trump’s campaign, or Mr. Trump himself. It is also
unclear whether the inquiry has anything to do with an investigation into the
hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computers and other attempts
to disrupt the elections in November.” Oops.
3. The FBI Denies It Was Targeting Trump. After President Trump tweeted
that the Obama administration had targeted him for wiretapping, FBI Director
James Comey asked the Justice Department to confirm that such a claim was
absolutely false. According to The New York Times, “FBI officials are said to
be worried that the notion of a court-approved wiretap will raise the public’s
expectations that the federal authorities have significant evidence implicating
the Trump campaign in colluding with Russia’s efforts to disrupt the presidential
election.” In other words, they have no such evidence. So Trump’s attempt to
target Obama inadvertently exposed the fact that there’s no evidence the
intelligence community thought Trump was in cahoots with Putin.
4. Even Democrats Are Backing Off The Trump-Russia Connections
Narrative. Last week, Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) said on MSNBC that
there were “transcripts that provide very helpful, very critical insights into
whether or not Russian intelligence and senior Russian political leaders,
including Vladimir Putin, were cooperating, were colluding with the Trump
campaign at the highest levels to influence the outcome of our election.” This
week, Coons admitted he didn’t know of any “conclusive proof” that any
such collusion took place, as John Sexton of Hot Air points out.
So far, it’s all implications and innuendos. There’s no hard evidence here.
That doesn’t explain why Trump would have the platform changed on Ukraine,
or why he seems so all-fired fascinated by Putin. But the suggestion that
Trump worked with Putin to steal the election appears to be sheer leftist fantasy.
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