The Mueller Report

by Tom Kando

Like many Americans, I have come to see the “Russiagate” scandal as tedious. I find our current president disgraceful, a man who is inflicting irreparable damage upon our country. However, after two years of scandal mongering, I find the democratic response pathetically ineffective. And the status quo may not change in the foreseeable future. Trump has a very good chance of being reelected. The Republicans have a good chance of holding on to power.

Plus: Russia-mongering has never appealed to me - not during the Red Scares of the 1950s and not now. To me, stoking the flames of anti-Communism in the past looked like a diversionary tactic by the plutocracy, and today’s anti-Russian frenzy feels a bit like a déja-vu.

BUT:
I clicked on the Mueller Report ’s URL anyway, lukewarmly, just for a quick glance at what I thought I already knew.

Well, let me tell you: It’s surprisingly impressive! The report shows beyond any doubt in juicy detail what sort of abominable regime a minority of the American people “elected” in 2016.

There is no doubt that:

1) the election was stolen from Hillary Clinton thanks to Russian assistance,

2) Trump and his campaign knew all about that assistance, and utilized it enthusiastically so as to cheat Clinton out of the presidency.

3) Trump desperately tried to silence all those who were exploring items #1 and #2, above

4) The Mueller team explicitly stated that it could NOT exonerate the President. 

The Mueller Report:

I estimate that only about 20% of the report has been redacted. While this is pretty good, we don’t know whether the redacted passages are the most damning.

VOLUME I addresses (A) Russian interference with the election, and (B) whether or not Trump and his minions colluded with the Russians.

(A) By now, no one who hasn’t spent the past two years on the planet Mars would deny that the Russians were deeply involved in throwing the election to the Republicans.

(B) But it is curious that the Mueller Report does NOT conclude that there was also CRIMINAL COLLUSION between the Russians and the Trump campaign:

“...while the investigation identified numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges.” (p. 9).”

The report offers reams of data documenting Russia’s enormous interference with the election: Russia’s Internet Research Agency was the primary tool for (this) (P. 4). By early 2016, it had launched a massive propaganda campaign favoring candidate Trump and disparaging candidate Clinton. It had “made contact with Trump supporters and Trump campaign officials in the United States.,” (p. 4) and it was engaging in “hacking and releases of hacked materials damaging to... Clinton... The Russian intelligence service known as the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Army (GRU) carried out these operations.” (P. 4).

In March 2016, the GRU began hacking the email accounts of Clinton campaign...employees, including campaign chairman John Podesta. In April 2016, the GRU hacked into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The GRU stole hundreds of thousands of documents from the compromised email accounts.... Around the time that the DNC announced in mid-June 2016 the Russian government's role in hacking its network, the GRU began disseminating stolen materials through the fictitious online personas "DCLeaks" and"Guccifer 2.0." The GRU later released additional materials through... WikiLeaks....The presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump...showed interest in WikiLeaks' s releases of documents and welcomed their potential to damage... Clinton.” (Pp. 4-5)

“WikiLeaks began releasing Podesta' s stolen emails on October 7, 2016, less than one hour after a U.S. media outlet released video considered damaging to candidate Trump.” (The disgusting access Hollywood tapes, TK) (P. 5).

“(Russia’s) Internet Research Agency’s social media may have reached an estimated 126 million (Americans) through Facebook alone.... It controlled nearly 4,000 Twitter accounts, and also made massive use of You Tube.” (Pp. 6, 15)

The essential thing to understand about the Russian disinformation campaign is that the dozens of millions of naive Americans who were exposed to it via the Internet and at mass rallies (which were also often organized by Russia’s IRA), believed that the information came from AMERICAN sources. They were purely and simply brainwashed by a foreign entity.

For example, one IRA source claimed to be the “Twitter of the Tennessee Rep. Party.” (P. 21).

IRA operatives were instructed to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary Clinton and the rest (except Sanders and Trump - we support them).” (P. 23).

And "it is imperative to intensify criticizing Hillary Clinton."(P. 24).

Russia’s IRA also “purchased advertisements that overtly opposed the Clinton Campaign .” (P. 25). 

Here is an example of an IRA tweet that went out to dozens of thousands of people, presumably mostly in the South: ”To those people who hate the confederate flag: The Civil War was not about Slavery, it was about Money.” This IRA tweet received over 40,000 responses, including those of Sean Hannity and Roger Stone. (PP. 27-28).

“Trump campaign affiliates promoted dozens of IRA tweets, posts, and other political content created by the IRA (and) re-tweeted by multiple Trump Campaign officials,... including Donald J. Trump Jr. Eric Trump, Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale and Michael T. Flynn.” (Pp. 28, 32) 

VOLUME II  asks whether or not Trump OBSTRUCTED the investigation into Russia’s interference, and his collusion with that interference.

As most people know, “in March 2017, James Comey publicly disclosed... that the FBI was investigating "the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election," including any links or coordination between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign. In the following days, the President reached out to the Director of National Intelligence and the leaders of the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA) to ask them what they could do to publicly dispel the suggestion that the President had any connection to the Russian election-interference effort. The President also twice called Comey directly... Comey had previously assured the President that he FBI was not investigating him personally, and the President asked Comey to " lift the cloud"of the Russia investigation by saying that publicly.” (P. 3-4).

Mueller provides ample evidence of the President’s “efforts to curtail the Special Counsel's investigation,” and his “Efforts to prevent public disclosure of evidence.” (P. 5).

For example, “soon after the firing of Comey and the appointment of the Special Counsel.... the President became aware that his own conduct was being investigated in an obstruction-of-justice inquiry. At that point, the President (began to engage in) public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it, and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation (P. 7)

Conclusion: ...

”If we had confidence after a thorough investigation... that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” (P. 8)

It’s quite simple: Our Democracy is not working. At least since 2000, presidential elections are being STOLEN. Al Gore lost the presidency not to the electorate, but to Ralph Nader and to the Republican Florida Secretary of State and the Republican stacked US Supreme Court. Obama’s election was a fluke, due to the sudden Great Economic Recession, which prompted many Americans to run to an “unconventional” candidate to save their ass. Under ordinary circumstances, white Americans do not elect black presidents (and I might add, American men do not elect female presidents). Add to that undemocratic institutions such as the Electoral College and the Senate, plus Republican tricks such as voter suppression, gerrymandering and undermining the US Census,  and what you get is minority rule over the majority - not unlike what you had in South Africa until 1994.

But lest I end on a negative note, let me reiterate what IS possible: When (almost) everyone votes, and when the Democrats stop infighting, we can get a super-majority that defeats all the tricks inherent in a somewhat rigged system.

© Tom Kando 2019;All Rights Reserved

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