I’ve been holding off commenting much on the fallout from the Mueller investigation because I’ve been waiting for the dust to settle. Now that both AG Barr and Mueller himself (after yesterday’s statement) appear to have had their own last words, here is what I think happened and where things stand. As I’ve previously mentioned, it has become crystal clear that the whole Russia collusion thing was a half-baked attempt by the Hillary campaign and those at the highest levels of the country’s intelligence community to sabotage Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and, following his election, his administration in order to cover up abuses and illegal spying/surveillance (call it what you will) that had expanded exponentially under the Obama administration.
The FBI did nothing with the obvious illegal actions of Hillary Clinton in using a private e-mail server and sending classified information by e-mail. They knew she was involved in “pay for play” access to the Clinton Foundation and was basically using her office as a shakedown operation for access to both her and Bill during her time as Secretary of State. Everybody knew it – most especially James Comey – but there was no way he was going to do anything about it because once that investigation got underway it would reveal the various illegal spying being done by the FBI, CIA, and other countries’ intelligence organizations at the behest of the Obama administration. Obama’s AG Loretta Lynch and his “senior advisor” Valerie Jarrett were entrusted to make damned sure of that.
They all thought Clinton would be elected president, but Election Night 2016 sent shockwaves through the various actors involved in the above. Hence, the Mueller investigation. Of course, Robert Mueller and his investigators knew all along there was no Russia collusion, so all they could do was try and use the investigation as a tool to call in witnesses in the hopes of entrapping them to sing like canaries and obtain obstruction of justice charges against anyone who could lead them to Donald Trump (and, even better, Trump himself). But that didn’t work, because the President’s legal team smelled a rat. In the end, no one could prove anything because there was nothing there to begin with. And as long as Jeff Sessions was AG, nothing further was going to happen beyond that, because Sessions – a “swamp creature” if there ever was one – knew where all the bodies were buried and, as a go along/get along kind of guy, he wasn’t going to upend the applecart.
What no one anticipated was that Donald Trump is, and never has been, a “let bygones be bygones” kind of guy. As someone who is always on offense, and – whether you agree with him or not – is the smartest guy in the room and always sees the bigger picture, Trump was willing to wait out the Mueller investigation and to pick his spot. And “his spot” was picking William Barr to be his AG and to allow Barr and his investigators (with the aid of Trump’s ability to declassify information), to uncover the real story behind the Russia investigation.
What Mueller said today, in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t really matter: this was Mueller taking a cowardly last cheap shot at Trump. The entire Mueller investigation stunk to high hell – entirely politically motivated and timed to allow those most intimately involved to cover their tracks. You want a quick translation of Mueller’s press conference? “We [Mueller’s deep state investigators] tried our damnedest but could not find evidence of collusion nor obstruction, so all we can do now is sling mud and hope it sticks. But you fellas don’t really need evidence to impeach so go ahead and do your part as per our original plan.”
I predict the Democrats will now vote to impeach President Trump, but it is going to kill them in the end come Election Night 2020. Let the political theatrics begin!
