They Are Brazen Because They Know They Will Get Away With It

 

This was tweeted by Rep. John Ratcliffe (R–TX) last night:

Yes, this is the real transcript of my exchange with Jim Comey. No, I didn’t make this up.

The Trump-Russia collusion story was always a pretext to launch an unconstrained investigation into whatever Robert Mueller and his allies thought necessary to destroy his presidency. Outside the collusion issue, Trump may very well have some real legal problems, some of them self-inflicted, and ultimately his enemies may take him down.

But the bigger story is how blatantly corrupt those going after Trump are, how unapologetic they have been about their actions, and how they have been broadly applauded by those on the commanding heights in our culture. And they believe, correctly I think, they will never be held accountable.

The question, if they are successful in their quest, is how do you keep a society of more than 300 million people functioning when half of the populace sees this happening openly and without consequence for the perpetrators? Why would any of them place one iota of trust in our political or justice systems after observing them get away with it? This, more than anything Trump has done, is the real crisis for America.

Ratcliffe’s assertions in the transcript are accurate. Comey just doesn’t care. Of course, it’s worse than that. President Obama publicly opined that Hillary Clinton, whom he had endorsed to be his successor, was innocent even as his own Justice Department was conducting its “investigation,” yet no Special Counsel a la Mueller was appointed, even though in Clinton’s case there were actually grounds to believe a crime had been committed.

We now know, despite President Obama’s assertions to the contrary, that he received sensitive emails from Hillary’s illegal server while he was outside the US.

We now know that Obama’s DOJ was handing out immunity passes like candy to Hillary’s associates and allowed Hillary cronies who were fact witnesses to masquerade as attorneys and sit in on interviews of other witnesses.

We now know that Comey drafted his exoneration of Clinton even before she was interviewed and the interview consisted of softballs lobbed over the center of the plate. No perjury traps for her!

We now know AG Loretta Lynch knew Comey would exonerate Clinton before she recused herself and let Comey decide what to do. It was all a show.

And that’s just the email side of the Clinton-Russia story because the two were linked, involving the Clinton campaign and the same principals at the FBI and Justice.

The Clinton campaign colluded with Russian intelligence in the production of the Steele Dossier. The campaign’s outside counsel, Marc Ellis, hired GPS Fusion, which hired Christopher Steele, who hired intermediaries, who contacted Russian intelligence sources to obtain information that ended up in the dossier.

The Russian who met with Fredo Trump, Jr. and Jared at Trump Tower during the campaign, had hired GPS Fusion to do a smear job on a Kremlin opponent, and that same Russian met with Glenn Simpson, head of Fusion GPS, immediately before and after the Trump Tower meeting.

And we recently learned that Steele has admitted in UK legal proceedings that the dossier was designed as an insurance policy for the Clinton campaign if Trump won the election.

Which, of course, now makes sense of the FBI texts, revealed months ago, indicating they had an “insurance policy” in place in the event Trump won.

We now know that the FBI sent several third parties to minor functionaries (Page, Papadopoulos) in the Trump campaign to try to entrap them, it turned out unsuccessfully, into creating the illusion of Russian collusion.

We now know that the FBI and DOJ misled the FISA Court on the origin of the Steele Dossier when it obtained the wiretap authorization on Carter Page.

We now know that Comey misled President-elect Trump when he briefed him on the Steele Dossier.

We now know that Comey was urged to brief Trump by CIA Director Brennan, who once he knew the briefing occurred, leaked the Dossier to CNN which used the briefing as the news hook to justify reporting on it.

We now know that even as Comey was repeatedly assuring the President he was not personally under investigation he was leaking damaging information to the New York Times, but somehow not leaking the assurances he was giving Trump.

We now know that even as Mueller was appointed Special Counsel in May 2017 the gang knew there was no criminal Russian collusion. We now know that because Strzok, who’d been more involved than anyone in the investigation up to that time, had been offered a job by Mueller but wondered if he should take it because, as he texted his lover, “there’s no big there there.” And, by that time, the gang had access to months of wiretaps of Carter Page and everyone he was in contact with, and everyone they were in contact with, and still had nothing. Remember when Trump was lampooned for claiming Trump Tower was wiretapped? It was!

It is mind-boggling that Rod Rosenstein, a fact witness in the firing of James Comey, did not recuse himself before appointing Mueller. It is mind-boggling that Robert Mueller, a long time associate and ally of Comey, a man committed to protecting the reputation of his beloved FBI and DOJ by any means necessary, was appointed to the role. It is mind-boggling that his senior staff lawyer is a well-known partisan Democrat who has been cited by the courts for unethical behavior.

I could go on for much longer but this is the biggest political scandal of my lifetime and it’s going on in full view; the perpetrators aren’t even bothering any longer to hide what they are doing and they are going to get away with it.

Published in General
This post was promoted to the Main Feed by a Ricochet Editor at the recommendation of Ricochet members. Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 91 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    You expressed my anger and frustration exactly. The Democrats do this stuff over and over, never thinking that one day it might be directed at them. Of course, the way our side mostly rolls over, they might be correct this time.

    • #1
  2. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    Yeoman work.  Thanks!

    • #2
  3. EDISONPARKS Member
    EDISONPARKS
    @user_54742

    It is both infuriating and deflating at the same time to realize the the Obama FBI/DOJ/IC will probably get away with their malfeasance in large part due to the apathy (or collusion?) of the MSM.

    To this day the MSM still pushes the narrative that Mueller is on to something with Trump/Russia collusion even after two years of “investigating” the matter has inadvertently proven just the opposite.

    Even as Mueller twists and molds  his prosecutions of Trump associates to his creative best to attempt to tie Trump to the “crimes” of his associates,  the fact that none of these supposed crimes have anything to do with Russia goes unremarked upon by the MSM, and the MSM audience  is asked to look at any new shiny objects and ignore that the original shiny object was switched out while no one was looking…. or because they desperately need a shiny object new, old, Russian, Porn star affairs, election finance law violations, whatever it takes …. If Trump bad, then show them more.

    • #3
  4. Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… Coolidge
    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…
    @GumbyMark

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    Yeoman work. Thanks!

    The depressing aspect is I could have easily made litany of corrupt acts twice or three times as long.  It’s not even about defending Trump, with whom I’ve got my problems.  It’s the damage these people are doing all by themselves.  They see themselves as The Resistance but they are Agents of Destruction.

    • #4
  5. Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… Coolidge
    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…
    @GumbyMark

    RightAngles (View Comment):

    You expressed my anger and frustration exactly. The Democrats do this stuff over and over, never thinking that one day it might be directed at them. Of course, the way our side mostly rolls over, they might be correct this time.

    The problem is less about rolling over; I don’t think for the most part that is happening – it’s who is left, with access to the right levers of power to do something about it?  I do not think the senior political appointees at DOJ actually control the department which is mostly staffed by partisan Democrats.  The top folks at the FBI seem more intent on protecting the FBI, even though I think they are actually continuing to damage the agency’s credibility.

    The rest of us are bystanders.

    • #5
  6. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: I could go on for much longer but this is the biggest political scandal of my lifetime and it’s going on in full view; the perpetrators aren’t even bothering any longer to hide what they are doing and they are going to get away with it.

    We could at least make them want to kill us to shut us up.  

    • #6
  7. Neil Hansen (Klaatu) Inactive
    Neil Hansen (Klaatu)
    @Klaatu

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: The Trump-Russia collusion story was always a pretext to launch an unconstrained investigation into whatever Robert Mueller and his allies thought necessary to destroy his presidency.

    I thought the Ricochet CoC prohibited the advancement of conspiracy theories?

    • #7
  8. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Neil Hansen (Klaatu) (View Comment):

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: The Trump-Russia collusion story was always a pretext to launch an unconstrained investigation into whatever Robert Mueller and his allies thought necessary to destroy his presidency.

    I thought the Ricochet CoC prohibited the advancement of conspiracy theories?

    No conspiracy necessary. Just Democrats being Democrats.  

    • #8
  9. toggle Inactive
    toggle
    @toggle

    Neil Hansen (Klaatu) (View Comment):

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: The Trump-Russia collusion story was always a pretext to launch an unconstrained investigation into whatever Robert Mueller and his allies thought necessary to destroy his presidency.

    I thought the Ricochet CoC prohibited the advancement of conspiracy theories?

    Initially, and foremost, Mueller was set up to exonerate, cover-up, and expunge the criminality of the prior administration and of its failed would-be successor.
    That has gone on smoothly, without a hitch, under the cover of the baseless Trump investigation.
    Basic prestidigitation : attract attention to one hand, while doing the trick with the other.

    The left seems to be adept not as only snakes and leeches, but contortionists of law enforcement too.

    • #9
  10. DonG Coolidge
    DonG
    @DonG

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: this is the biggest political scandal of my lifetime

    This is the worst scandal in the history of the country.  FBI, CIA, NSA, DOJ and DOS all corrupted at that same time.  The Senate doesn’t seem to care (except Rand Paul) and only a few in the House care.  The FISA court does not care about being lied to.  The Judicial branch doesn’t care about what they are seeing.  The agencies don’t care about the corruption.  The MSM is part of the scandal.  Maybe the IG will surprise us….

    • #10
  11. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    DonG (View Comment):
    Maybe the IG will surprise us….

    Not without a lot of people having his back.  

    • #11
  12. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Nevertheless, Trump. 

     

    • #12
  13. EDISONPARKS Member
    EDISONPARKS
    @user_54742

    Neil Hansen (Klaatu) (View Comment):

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: The Trump-Russia collusion story was always a pretext to launch an unconstrained investigation into whatever Robert Mueller and his allies thought necessary to destroy his presidency.

    I thought the Ricochet CoC prohibited the advancement of conspiracy theories?

    Rather than proclaiming conspiracy theory make a coherent case why the Mueller investigation is a legitimate inquest into the Trump campaign colluding with the Russian government to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.

    To most observers it is anything but. 

    More over, at this point in the onion peeling it is fact the Obama DOJ/FBI/IC abused their police powers(unmasking, FISA warrants , leaks of classified info) to affect the 2016 election, yet this is somehow outside the purview of the Special Counsel …. that is the most unremarked upon aspect of this entire corrupt Mueller clusterschtoop.

    • #13
  14. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: yet no Special Counsel a la Mueller was appointed, even though in Clinton’s case there were actually grounds to believe a crime had been committed.

    Where are the Republican leaders calling for a special counsel?  Will the new DOJ head call for one?

    • #14
  15. PHenry Inactive
    PHenry
    @PHenry

    Very little you lay out is even debatable, it is documented fact.

    Yet, nothing. 

    Nothing?

      We have lost the people’s government, it is a crazy train off the rails, and not even the radical outsider swamp draining President Trump seems to be able to rein in the rampant corruption and disregard for basic justice. 

     The American people know that, with the evidence presented above, this case is only the smallest tip of the iceberg of political corruption in our justice system.  Corruption on this scale does not exist in a vacuum. It is a sign of systematic dysfunction.   I shudder to imagine the innocent average American Joe’s who have been destroyed without recourse in the arrogant reckless actions taken by this unconstrained power mad bureaucracy.  We will never hear their case, see their plight.  They are just sucked in, chewed up and forgotten. 

     I want to believe that the vast majority of law enforcement and justice department personnel are honest, patriotic Americans who would never stand by and watch corruption run wild under their noses. 

    Yet, nothing? 

    When will someone hold these criminals to account?  And by criminals, I mean not only the politicians being given special treatment, but those giving that deference.  Their crime is worse.  They are the stewards, and they are willfully, arrogantly, blatantly corrupt. 

    • #15
  16. Neil Hansen (Klaatu) Inactive
    Neil Hansen (Klaatu)
    @Klaatu

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Neil Hansen (Klaatu) (View Comment):

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: The Trump-Russia collusion story was always a pretext to launch an unconstrained investigation into whatever Robert Mueller and his allies thought necessary to destroy his presidency.

    I thought the Ricochet CoC prohibited the advancement of conspiracy theories?

    No conspiracy necessary. Just Democrats being Democrats.

    Except Rosenstein and Mueller are not Democrats.

    • #16
  17. danok1 Member
    danok1
    @danok1

    Neil Hansen (Klaatu) (View Comment):

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: The Trump-Russia collusion story was always a pretext to launch an unconstrained investigation into whatever Robert Mueller and his allies thought necessary to destroy his presidency.

    I thought the Ricochet CoC prohibited the advancement of conspiracy theories?

    I think this from the OP shows there’s no “conspiracy theory” here.

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…: And we recently learned that Steele has admitted in UK legal proceedings that the dossier was designed as an insurance policy for the Clinton campaign if Trump won the election.

     

    • #17
  18. Neil Hansen (Klaatu) Inactive
    Neil Hansen (Klaatu)
    @Klaatu

    EDISONPARKS (View Comment):
    Rather than proclaiming conspiracy theory make a coherent case why the Mueller investigation is a legitimate inquest into the Trump campaign colluding with the Russian government to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.

    There were/are legitimate counterintelligence concerns with people in the Trump orbit (Manafort, Stone, & others) justifying an investigation that touched on the campaign. Manafort was unpaid campaign manager!  Those legitimate concerns, coupled with the known Russian efforts to interfere in our elections could well have led to a good faith conclusion that Trump’s team might play a knowing or unknowing role in that effort.

    • #18
  19. Neil Hansen (Klaatu) Inactive
    Neil Hansen (Klaatu)
    @Klaatu

    danok1 (View Comment):
    I think this from the OP shows there’s no “conspiracy theory” here.

    How is that?  What evidence is there to support the conclusion?  That Steele was privy to the intended use of the information obtained?

    • #19
  20. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Neil Hansen (Klaatu) (View Comment):
    Except Rosenstein and Mueller are not Democrats.

    And Trump is not a Republican of long standing. So what is your point?

    • #20
  21. Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… Coolidge
    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo…
    @GumbyMark

    Neil Hansen (Klaatu) (View Comment):

    EDISONPARKS (View Comment):
    Rather than proclaiming conspiracy theory make a coherent case why the Mueller investigation is a legitimate inquest into the Trump campaign colluding with the Russian government to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.

    There were/are legitimate counterintelligence concerns with people in the Trump orbit (Manafort, Stone, & others) justifying an investigation that touched on the campaign. Manafort was unpaid campaign manager! Those legitimate concerns, coupled with the known Russian efforts to interfere in our elections could well have led to a good faith conclusion that Trump’s team might play a knowing or unknowing role in that effort.

    But not by May 2017 when Mueller was granted an unlimited hunting licence to go after everything in Donald Trump’s life and the lives of anyone associated with him, where no potential crime had even been  identified, contra to DOJ guidelines for appointing Special Counsel.  To your point, a counter-intelligence probe into attempted Russian influence into both campaigns and the election in general would have been appropriate but what we have is an endless criminal investigation that has found absolutely nothing about the Trump connection yet goes on and on probing into things that have absolutely nothing to do with Russia and the 2016 campaign.

    When the Russia collusion stuff began after the election, I thought it might be plausible given Trump’s statements kissing Putin’s behind during the campaign and some of the sleazos associated with the campaign but we know now there was nothing there and, more importantly, so did Mueller, Comey, Brennan, Yates et al.  This was always about triggering the insurance policy to rem0ve Trump.  

    The irony is if Hillary won in 2016 all of this rot would never have been exposed.  And Harvey Weinstein would still be roaming around Hollywood!  And if one was going to investigate Russian connections with the Trump campaign why would you studiously avoid doing the same with the Clinton campaign where, as we now know, there is clear evidence of collusion, in contrast to the Trump campaign?  And why all the touching concern about collusion in an election campaign when, once again, we saw Obama openly colluding with Putin in 2012? 

     

    • #21
  22. danok1 Member
    danok1
    @danok1

    Neil Hansen (Klaatu) (View Comment):

    danok1 (View Comment):
    I think this from the OP shows there’s no “conspiracy theory” here.

    How is that? What evidence is there to support the conclusion? That Steele was privy to the intended use of the information obtained?

    I suggest you do some of your own research on this.

    • #22
  23. EDISONPARKS Member
    EDISONPARKS
    @user_54742

    Neil Hansen (Klaatu) (View Comment):

    EDISONPARKS (View Comment):
    Rather than proclaiming conspiracy theory make a coherent case why the Mueller investigation is a legitimate inquest into the Trump campaign colluding with the Russian government to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.

    There were/are legitimate counterintelligence concerns with people in the Trump orbit (Manafort, Stone, & others) justifying an investigation that touched on the campaign. Manafort was unpaid campaign manager! Those legitimate concerns, coupled with the known Russian efforts to interfere in our elections could well have led to a good faith conclusion that Trump’s team might play a knowing or unknowing role in that effort.

    This was the pretense(insurance policy) to start the investigation and we know now this was all a set up and a lie, although I will grant that I’m sure the Obama DOJ/FBI/IC were hoping they would eventually find “something” more Russia collusion related than election finance law violations of hush money payments to Porn actresses.   It is obvious in hindsight the Obama FBI/DOJ/IC never had the probable cause to start an investigation of this magnitude.

    The questions I have about Roger Stone (since you brought up his name) is if Stone/Corsi communicated with Assange/Wikileaks to encourage the leak of the DNC/Podesta e-mails, how would that incriminate Stone/Corsi (in Russian collusion) if they had no involvement with the actual hacking(theft) of the DNC/Podesta e-mails.   Additionally, the notion that the Russians hacked the DNC server is an IC assessment (ie: best guess … and quite probably correct), yet the DNC would not permit the FBI to examine the server and attempt to verify who perpetrated the hack.  So how would anyone ever be convicted of participating in a Russian collusion(hacking the DNC server) if it were never proven the Russians even committed the hack in large part because the DNC evidently did not want the policing authorities to discover the perpetrator of the theft of the e-mails.

    • #23
  24. Neil Hansen (Klaatu) Inactive
    Neil Hansen (Klaatu)
    @Klaatu

    Gumby Mark (R-Meth Lab of Demo… (View Comment):

    But not by May 2017 when Mueller was granted an unlimited hunting licence to go after everything in Donald Trump’s life and the lives of anyone associated with him, where no potential crime had even been identified, contra to DOJ guidelines for appointing Special Counsel. To your point, a counter-intelligence probe into attempted Russian influence into both campaigns and the election in general would have been appropriate but what we have is an endless criminal investigation that has found absolutely nothing about the Trump connection yet goes on and on probing into things that have absolutely nothing to do with Russia and the 2016 campaign.

    Mueller was not given such license; regardless, how had those legitimate concerns been resolved prior to Mueller’s appointment?  The potential crime is obstruction.  I happen to fall on the side that believes a President cannot obstruct by exercising his power to fire the FBI Director but it is an open question.

    When the Russia collusion stuff began after the election, I thought it might be plausible given Trump’s statements kissing Putin’s behind during the campaign and some of the sleazos associated with the campaign but we know now there was nothing there and, more importantly, so did Mueller, Comey, Brennan, Yates et al. This was always about triggering the insurance policy to rem0ve Trump.

    The irony is if Hillary won in 2016 all of this rot would never have been exposed. And Harvey Weinstein would still be roaming around Hollywood! And if one was going to investigate Russian connections with the Trump campaign why would you studiously avoid doing the same with the Clinton campaign where, as we now know, there is clear evidence of collusion, in contrast to the Trump campaign? And why all the touching concern about collusion in an election campaign when, once again, we saw Obama openly colluding with Putin in 2012? 

    How do we know there is nothing there?  Has the investigation concluded?  Do we know what Mueller or the FBI discovered prior to his appointment?  Best I can tell, Mueller’s team has been virtually leak free.

    Which Clinton campaign staff had the type of Russian connections Manafort has?

    • #24
  25. Neil Hansen (Klaatu) Inactive
    Neil Hansen (Klaatu)
    @Klaatu

    danok1 (View Comment):
    I suggest you do some of your own research on this.

    I have, what have I missed?

    • #25
  26. Neil Hansen (Klaatu) Inactive
    Neil Hansen (Klaatu)
    @Klaatu

    EDISONPARKS (View Comment):
    This was the pretense(insurance policy) to start the investigation and we know now this was all a set up and a lie

    How do we know this?  Please be specific.

    • #26
  27. EDISONPARKS Member
    EDISONPARKS
    @user_54742

    Neil Hansen (Klaatu) (View Comment):

    EDISONPARKS (View Comment):
    This was the pretense(insurance policy) to start the investigation and we know now this was all a set up and a lie

    How do we know this? Please be specific.

    The entire creation of the Steele Dossier via the DNC/HRC/Perkins Coie/Fusion GPS/Glen Simpson/Nellie Ohr+Bruce Ohr and leaking the Steele dossier into the MSM is the crux of the set up and a lie.

    Additionally, the Mueller investigation has taken us no where even close to Trump Russian collusion, and Congressional investigations and journalists had laid out multiple instances of Obama DOJ/FBI/IC malfeasance as it relates to literally setting up (Papadopoulos=Misfud/Downer)(Carter Page=Halper) Trump associates.

    • #27
  28. danok1 Member
    danok1
    @danok1

    Neil Hansen (Klaatu) (View Comment):

    danok1 (View Comment):
    I suggest you do some of your own research on this.

    I have, what have I missed?

    I’ve read the summaries of the UK proceeding @gumbymark mentions, where Steele and Fusion GPS clearly state the dossier was created to challenge the validity of the election if DJT won.

    • #28
  29. Neil Hansen (Klaatu) Inactive
    Neil Hansen (Klaatu)
    @Klaatu

    EDISONPARKS (View Comment):

    The entire creation of the Steele Dossier via the DNC/HRC/Perkins Coie/Fusion GPS/Glen Simpson/Nellie Ohr+Bruce Ohr and leaking the Steele dossier into the MSM is the crux of the set up and a lie.

    That is an assertion, nothing more.  The fact the FBI kept the CI investigation into the Trump campaign secret while Trump was repeatedly stating no one under FBI investigation deserves to be President argues against it.

    Additionally, the Mueller investigation has taken us no where even close to Trump Russian collusion, and Congressional investigations and journalists had laid out multiple instances of Obama DOJ/FBI/IC malfeasance as it relates to literally setting up (Papadopoulos=Misfud/Downer)(Carter Page=Halper) Trump associates.

    We have no idea what Mueller has learned.  If there is malfeasance on the part of others deserving investigation, the DOJ is headed by Trump appointees who can initiate such an investigation.

    • #29
  30. Neil Hansen (Klaatu) Inactive
    Neil Hansen (Klaatu)
    @Klaatu

    danok1 (View Comment):
    I’ve read the summaries of the UK proceeding @gumbymark mentions, where Steele and Fusion GPS clearly state the dossier was created to challenge the validity of the election if DJT won.

    Then post them with a link.

    • #30
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.