It looks right now like bad guys are getting away with attempted election larceny. But, events are still unfolding and the dark of night precedes dawn, even in politics.
To those paying attention, rot and corruption at the highest levels of government are painfully visible. The problem is that "visible" does not mean the same thing as "entered into public awareness."
The most malignant political abuses in American history are lodged in shady DC hallways, government memos, thousands of texts and emails, and partisan dossiers that are staring us straight in the face. But, it would take an honest and capable media to make the public care.
Unfortunately, we go to civic war with the media we have. Most national outlets are staffed by packs of Democrat cheerleaders and bodyguards. Their mission is to unite and howl in harmony about whatever is the current attack on Donald Trump. The subject has bounced from fictional Russia collusion to imminent nuclear war with North Korea to the horrors of policing illegal border crossings under the same conditions and constraints that were in place—and separated families--under the Bush and Obama administrations.
Nary a reporter at ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, PBS, NYT, or WAPO will lift a finger or stir a tongue to inform Americans of the malice of FBI Agents Strzok or Page, or other accomplices yet unnamed. No producer or executive in the Alphabet Cartel will allocate news minutes to exposing the machinations of James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, or others.
So, the biggest political scandal there ever was, still isn't. But that doesn't mean the story dies here or that no chickens will eventually roost and in due course, boil.
Even the hefty reports of DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz—loaded with explosive revelations—are delivered soggy and quickly defused.
Horowitz has been notably thorough digging up ugly facts. But, he has been unreasonably agnostic—even disingenuous—about connecting, interpreting, and reporting the damning dots. As Andrew McCarthy explains, the IG report presents copious evidence of intense hostility and dripping contempt for Trump, as well as bizarre departures from standard law enforcement methods during the Clinton investigation. Yet, the Report blithely concludes no harm, no foul, no bias, because it would take a mind reader to understand why FBI officials made the decisions they did.
The Inspector’s insouciance in turn excuses media lies or neglect about the disclosures’ real import. That’s how a long running trickle and sometimes torrent of news about troubling, possibly criminal behavior by government gets dismissed as unrelated, unimportant matters.
A unique, mostly unnoted development offers hope to break through the blockade of blasé. Last March, Attorney General Jeff Sessions advised Congress by letter he had previously deputized United States Attorney for Utah John Huber and other “senior federal prosecutors” to consider and act on information coming from the Inspector General. When a federal prosecutor “acts” it means he brings warranted criminal cases. Without Horowitz’s swamp background or ties to the Obama administration, Huber is positioned to look independently and apply legal scrutiny rather than political excusery to a number of issues. These include:
Whether Attorney General Loretta Lynch did wrong by meeting privately with Bill Clinton while her office was investigating Hillary Clinton; whether she obstructed the FBI’s investigation of Clinton; whether she deceived Congress about having no collusive contacts with the Clinton campaign, while recovered emails suggest she did.
Whether FBI Director Comey wrongfully set up the president and engineered a leak of the details of the controversial Steele Dossier; whether he participated in deceiving the FISA Court about the dossier’s origins and reliability; whether he abused government information by keeping and leaking classified memos to the media after his termination.
Whether Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (already recommended for prosecution by the IG for lying to investigators about his leaks to the press) committed wrong in the leaking of the dossier; whether he participated in misleading the FISA Court.
Whether top political and intelligence officials illegally leaked identities of American citizens wrongly caught in the FBI’s surveillance of the Trump campaign, to stoke Russia collusion stories.
Whether FBI Agent Strzok, Attorney Page or other agents took improper action in furtherance of their vow to “stop” Trump’s election. (The couple’s hatred for Trump has long been of record; only recently have texts expressing the intent to “stop him” been made public).
Whether 302 Forms (FBI interview reports) of Michael Flynn or other witnesses were altered to appear incriminating; Whether, as reported, FBI investigators decided to clear Flynn or wrongdoing, but higher ups in the DOJ reversed the decision.
These are a few of the unanswered questions hanging over administration officials and agents. The media has largely ignored or dismissed them. If John Huber does his job and begins aiming judicial process at the deserving, this disgraceful chapter may yet get its historical due. And, Americans may learn whether the nation nearly fell prey to a secret coup.