Why did the Russia Hoax co-conspirators use emails to document their plans?
I’ve seen speculation about that – for example, here.
It is indeed a puzzlement. I don’t think they were stupid people, so I reject that notion. I have a one-word answer – which of course, being a blogger, I’ll expand on – and that is:
Hubris.
They felt protected by firewalls of “classified” labels.
They had spent their lives conniving and plotting and had only been promoted and acquired more and more power.
They thought they’d be successful in stopping Trump, because they had a host of ways and a host of powerful allies in the cause. And, if successful, the right would never come to power, certainly not in their lifetimes.
They knew the left would certainly never tell or investigate, nor would the press. The left and the press would back them up and/or cover up whatever they did.
But in addition, they thought the right would never get access to those emails, and if they did, the press and the left would be able to deflect them. More importantly, the right would never prosecute. That last remains to be seen.
And if the right did prosecute, the right wouldn’t win the cases. That also remains to be seen.
On those last two points, I think that this article is relevant. Despite the left’s demonizing of the right as power-mad fascists, until now in the US in recent years the right – for the most part – was reluctant to play hardball to the extent the left does. From the piece:
… merely being in office is not enough. Conservatives (or those labelling themselves as such) also need to have a will to be in power and not just to be in office. The power truly to change things can be found not just in the realm of politics but also in culture, education, and entertainment. The Left fights wars—cultural, ideological, total—while conservatives content themselves with fighting single-issue battles. The Left controls culture, media, education—it is, essentially, always in power. Conservatives, meanwhile, take office now and again, but rarely shape the culture.
This time around for the Trump administration, I see some of that happening. But in the case of the Russia Hoax, the willingness to use legal power is especially important too. However, there can be danger of abuse of power in employing the law to try and to convict the opposition; after all, that is what the left has been trying to do to Trump and anyone who would work for him, the approach known as lawfare which culminated on the four legal cases against Trump in which the law was stretched to the breaking point to manufacture novel ways to “get” him. The right has an understandable reluctance to do that, and I share that reluctance.
But what if people such as Clapper and Brennan really are guilty? And of what? I’ve discussed that before, and I plan to discuss it again. But if people really are guilty of the sort of things of which the Russiagate co-conspirators are accused, they need to be prosecuted.
Of course, those who thought – and still think – Trump was guilty and should have been imprisoned will not be changing their minds on that, and they will see the prosecution of the Russia Hoaxers as a terrible and vengeful miscarriage of justice. And I believe that group of people may consist of half the country.
Related?
I Kings 3:16 – 3:28
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgement_of_Solomon
https://x.com/WesternLensman/status/1948787917889175770
John Brennan, for one, has learned nothing. See the link for a video clip of him attacking DNI Gabbard.
In my time in academia and in the Fortune 500 I certainly saw plenty of occasions where things that should not have been put in email were put in email.
I also saw the reverse, flagrant violations of “open meetings” laws, things not put in writing that were supposed to be put in writing.
You also see people making videos of their crimes and putting them online.
What can you say? People get comfortable, and think they’re communicating in a safe space.
My own rule was never to put in an email what you wouldn’t want seen on 60 Minutes with your name on it.
“…learned nothing…”
Where John Brennan comes from, it’s not a matter of “learning”.
It’s a matter of survival.
Never give up.
NEVER surrender.
Use all the weapons you’ve got. Lie, dissemble, prevaricate, insinuate, delay, attack, confuse…and hold out for more time…and possible escape.
Possible salvation…
Not for him the meek mea culpa while offering the back of his head to the executioner’s bullet.
No, that’s for his victims….
File under: Darkness at…24/7.
heh. He was the capo of the Central Learn-Nothing Agency after all! Was better fit ever built?
Like jason wynn the devils pawn in the spawn series he didnt think he would get caught his record has been at best derelict since the 90s bob baer chose not to name him in his memoir
When he was station chief in riyadh certainly a prime node in al quedas growth
His behavior sideline a lead task force leader according to john kirikaou (who i dont entirely trust) but there is the preponderance of suspicious behavior
“Conservatives, meanwhile, take office now and again, but rarely shape the culture.”
The right is the silent majority. The left is made up the morally superior, revolutionary, loud and proud nags. They are always going to build a perfect world but never do.
“And I believe that group of people may consist of half the country.” – Neo
I pray it isn’t so. But what now passes for justice in this country is morphing from long established rules of evidence and a presumption of innocence into a full-throated trial by public opinion in social media, and the still potent (though less so these days) MSM.
Theories, rumors, and lies about these cases go around the world before the truth can get its boots on. In the lawfare against Trump he was accorded no presumption of innocence, the evidence was twisted, and the prosecutors tortured the law to bring indictments.
IMO, Trump could throw his opponents off their high horses by insisting that the “Three Mouseketeers” get a presumption of innocence and a thorough examination of the evidence in a fair trial. Uphold the standards of our legal system. Show them what real justice looks like.
@neo: I have a one-word answer … and that is: Hubris.
That was my answer from reading the topic title.
They couldn’t imagine losing to Trump in 2016 or 2024. They were sure that by hook or by crook, especially the latter, they would destroy Trump .
Given the vast amount of power they had — the Deep State, the media, academia, the billionaires, Hollywood, etc. — it wasn’t a bad bet.
Plus the old Democrat coalition of minorities and the working class should have kept them in power forever.
Except, besotted by their advantages and their contempt for ordinary citizens, they took their eyes off American voters, and learned that they couldn’t just jam America into a woke, globalist agenda by force.
However, they came uncomfortably close.
We’re in a civil war, J.J., and in war, you must play to win. The dems and media fought dirty, and so should we. The Left in this country, which includes the entire Dem party, most of the media, academia and Hollywood, are essentially communists using communist tactics to destroy our liberties and seize permanent control of the country. Trump may be the only person who can stop them once and for all, as the GOP itself doesn’t have the stomach for it. Charge all of them, Obama, Clapper, Comey, Strozk, the 51 signers etc, and ruin them or jail them. Charge media personalities who received and published lies and pushed the narrative. Make them afraid to ever do this again.
Almost half our population, the consumers of “news” from the mainstream, legacy media, live in a bubble of ignorance and lies, often willingly, and are the useful idiots the communists use to win. My liberal friends fit into this category–they believe Trump is a Russian asset, that he’s a fascist, democracy is in danger (it is, but not because of him), and that it would have been great if the assassins had succeeded.
Scott Adams a few days ago said the charging or jailing of Obama could start a civil war, but that he’d be ok with that as a necessary step to root out the cancer the Left represents. I tend to agree with him.
I was thinking… 2 Chronicles 26:16
Not uncommon.
bill has the right of it.
It doesn’t matter if half the country sees the prosecution of the Russia Hoaxers as a terrible and vengeful miscarriage of justice because only the truth forthrightly defended can break through the “bubble of ignorance and lies” that bewitch the left’s useful idiots.
Truth requires accountability and consequence to have meaning.
The easy answer is that they never thought they would be caught. They also thought Hillary would win and Trump would fade off into the sunset. They were wrong on both accounts. Or they are all true believers and have convinced themselves of their own righteousness. They believe that they are fighting the good fight.
Well yes, certainly….
(BTW, VDH, who’s a Classics Olympian, talks about hubris a fair amount. Seems to be one of his favorite topics, perhaps even a hobby(?)….)
I think Obama will skate. Even Trump has pointed out that the presidential immunity ruling probably helps Obama quite a bit. As to the others, it won’t help them, but the underlying crimes have probably passed the statute of limitations. However, lying to Congress might still be chargeable.
And yes, this was hubris. They thought they were invincible.
Prosecution is one thing, getting a conviction is another; Grand juries in California are refusing to punish people arrested for assaulting ICE agents.
“Charge all of them, Obama, Clapper, Comey, Strozk, the 51 signers etc, and ruin them or jail them.” – bill
I agree with much of what you say. I’m also mad as H*ll and want some revenge. But, after we have cutdown all the laws to get after the Devil, where will we be?
The evidence, as far as I can tell at this point, is quite strong. Charge them when the evidence points that way and work hard to get a guilty judgement. Do not, however, twist the law and make things up to get vindication. Our justice system should not be perverted because it’s what protects we innocent people – as it did Donald J. Trump. Fight hard for justice but do it right.
“Trump may be the only person who can stop them once and for all, as the GOP itself doesn’t have the stomach for it.” – bill
In the 1980s there was a man named Reagan who stopped them in their tracks and ended the Cold War to boot. We thought an era of peace would follow and that democracy and free enterprise were ascendent. The peaceful era was rather short, and if we learned nothing else from what has happened since 1989, it is that democracy and free enterprise are never more than a generation from being taken down by tyranny.
Trump is doing a good job of stopping them, but all of us must be ready to fight on. This is just a skirmish in a long cold war that’s being fought here on our territory. We will need other courageous men with big shoulders in 2028 and beyond.
Kate & James Sisco – I think that John Solomon and Greg Jarrett have said that the 5 year statute of limitations in a conspiracy case is counted from the latest act of the conspiracy. Also that if a crime under the conspiracy were committed in Florida, a case could be brought there.
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Also thanks to Barry and John G. for your Biblical references!
Hubris! I think that’s right. They don’t believe they are above the law, they believe they
ARE the law!
I think Neo is right about hubris–in the form of thinking they were too smart and powerful to ever get caught much less punished–was the main driver in this foolish behavior.
But there is another factor implied in her statement that “The left is made up the morally superior, revolutionary, loud and proud nags.” I think they also wanted to leave a record for future generations so that history would appreciate how clever and how moral they had been. It never entered their minds that they might be neither.
There’s a commenter over on Althouse who tends to run a little hot for my tastes, but on this subject I fully agree with him: he doesn’t much care if Obama is actually prosecuted; he just wants to hear him claim presidential immunity and executive privilege on the basis that conspiring to undermine an incoming administration was an official act. Further, he wants to hear Chief Justice Roberts publicly defend that view.
The remainder would be to get our craven and partisan press corps to cover that story truthfully: an outgoing president instructed the intelligence services of which he was still in charge to create a blatantly false – 180 degrees from what he knew was the truth – pretext for:
(1) surveillance of the incoming administration’s personnel including the new president
(2) poisoning the new president’s ability to staff his administration by prosecuting and threatening prosecution of those who had already signed on
(3) interfering with the new president’s ability to conduct foreign policy by convincing the American public – and Congress! – that any negotiations he entered into with Russia would be corrupt self-dealing
(4) laying the groundwork for a complete roadblock of everything the new administration might try to accomplish
(5) materially damaging – let’s be real; attempting to destroy – a man’s reputation and those of his surrogates
– and now claims that he did all of that as part of his official role as Chief Executive. Serving whom?
J.J. Is right, Trump’s team should Fight (Fight Fight). But with presumption… of guilt requiring proof, expecting the court, not the DoJ, to presume innocence.
It’s the courts’ job, not Reps in office, to presume innocence.
The failure of Durham was accepting a presumption of innocence to stop a thorough investigation. Like the one that never happened over Hillary’s illegal server, which likely was hacked & copied by China & Russia & maybe Mossad. It would be good if She was included in the conspiracy.
Congress should also increase the statute of limitations to 10 or 20 years for govt officials.
Brennan will likely be at least one scapegoat, but all of Obama’s lying govt criminals should be indicted and fully prosecuted so that all the evidence is presented in a court of law, with witnesses under oath.
The court verdict is less important than the evidence for use in campaigns, including to convince more independents that the Dems & media were lying. Over and over again. It might even create a cascade of acknowledgment that the Dems were lying, tho the “Yes, Biden is semi-senile, but the govt was lying to us, too” will also be used.
Dems who believe liars are gullible, and should be laughed at. Repeatedly.
but they don’t confess, because politics is their faith, their way of bringing heaven on earth, or smiting the real enemy, with a converso like brennan as alleged, from his lefty ways, if he were not an adversary of this nation, would he have done things differently, same with strzok and page, that the justice department settled with, conveniently,
the crew around kennedy, largely organized the watergate subterfuge for reasons, we know subsequently how morally compromised he would become with the Soviets,
@J.J. Our justice system should not be perverted because it’s what protects we innocent people – as it did Donald J. Trump.
It didn’t. He is a convicted felon. He just didn’t have to go to prison. New York perverted the law to get a felony conviction for something that is not a crime, using an extended statute of limitations by executive order.
And Trump’s still appealing it.
“It didn’t. He is a convicted felon.” – Niketas C.
True, but had the Dems had their way, he would be sitting in prison based on four different convictions.
He not only has a very strong appeals case on the conviction, but the voters saw through the phony conviction and re-elected him. Quite a statement against the jury’s verdict.
The justice system worked in spite of the malign malpractice by Bragg, James, Willis, and Smith. A lot of that is due to Trump’s excellent legal representation and his ability to hire them. IMO, it showed that our system of justice, imperfect as it is, is still better than most.
That the appeal on the Bragg case hasn’t been heard yet is more evidence of malign malpractice. YMMV.
What exactly would be the downside if all the above mentioned characters are investigated and indicted? Make them appear in court and have all their dirty linen made public. This “we’re better than that” attitude got us 4+ years of lawfare for Trump and others. Maybe, just maybe, if they get a taste of their own medicine they will look at things differently. As it is now, they’re assuming nothing bad will happen. Surprise’m!
I hope a lot of these conspirators get prosecuted into bankruptcy.
Email may have also been a kind of political MAD. “If any of you try to throw me under the bus, I’m taking you all with me.”
Not that such means hubris couldn’t be involved, just saying don’t underestimate political insurance.