Crossfire Hurricane

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, has been vilified by many Democrats and their trained hamsters in the media for well over a year. He has been accused of everything but treason for doggedly investigating then-alleged clandestine surveillence of the Trump campaign by the Obama administration. The reaction to Nunes' investigation by Democrats was so extreme (borderline hysteria) that only one conclusion could be drawn—he and his committee were on to something, and that something was big, very BIG.

In their unhinged efforts to negate the results of their upset loss to Donald Trump, the Dems have opened a pandora's box of scandalous behavior by the Obama-era FBI and DoJ, and the Clinton campaign (the only campaign proven to have indirectly colluded with Russians to create a phony dossier on Trump). By pressing an empty collusion investigation the Dems (and a few GOP #NeverTrumpers) have also demonstrated that in recent years, dishonest testimony by the senior officials in the FBI, the CIA, and other intelligence services is commonplace.

Because of Devin Nunes' investigation, the dam of lies and deceit is cracking. It appears, based on very recent events, that the Dems understand that the truth will come out—that for the first time in modern history, a sitting administration tried to rig a national election by surveilling the opposition party candidate for president. That the Democrats, through an outgoing president from their own party, placed a "spy" inside the Trump campaign to provide intelligence. Was that intel passed long to the Clinton campaign? Stay tuned.

But the bigger question for the Dems is What to do?

Never at a loss for sleazy strategies, the Dems will rely on their trained hamsters in the media to suffocate the story, through spin, omission, and lack of coverage. Here's the scheme going back 15 - 20 months:

1. Deny, deny any wrongdoing. That didn't work because facts got in the way.
2. Ridicule anyone that suggests that malfeasance or worse did occur under Obama's watch. That was tried, but didn't work.
3. Vilify the investigators who (unlike Robert Mueller) did find hard evidence of wrongdoing and demanded more information from the FBI and the DoJ. That almost worked, but Nunes prevailed.
4. Stonewall. Requests for additional information were slow-walked or outright denied for "national security" reasons. That worked, but only for a while. The threat of contempt of congress broke the stone wall.
5. Provide a "leak" to the Dem-friendly New York Times, that on its surface, makes the NYT seem to have produced an objective investigative report, when in fact, it is simply acting as conduit to allow the Obama-era intelligence community and DoJ holdovers to get ahead of the story for a few days or weeks. That happened two days ago.

Molly Hemingway discusses the NYT piece:

The New York Times‘ story, headlined “Code Name Crossfire Hurricane: The Secret Origins of the Trump Investigation,” is a dry and gentle account of the FBI’s launch of extensive surveillance of affiliates of the Trump campaign. Whereas FBI officials and media enablers had previously downplayed claims that the Trump campaign had been surveiled, in this story we learn that it was more widespread than previously acknowledged:

The F.B.I. investigated four unidentified Trump campaign aides in those early months, congressional investigators revealed in February. The four men were Michael T. Flynn, Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Mr. Papadopoulos, current and former officials said…

The F.B.I. obtained phone records and other documents using national security letters — a secret type of subpoena — officials said. And at least one government informant met several times with Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos, current and former officials said.

This is a stunning admission for those Americans worried that federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies might use their powers to surveil, leak against, and target Americans simply for their political views or affiliations. As Sean Davis wrote, “The most amazing aspect about this article is how blasé it is about the fact that the Obama admin was actively spying on four affiliates of a rival political campaign weeks before an election.”

Yeah ... the NYT gets all agitated about an $130K payment to a porn star who is alleged to have had a one night stand with Donald Trump over a decade ago. They do deep investigation and do so with more than a little enthusiasm. But their own reporting about a conspiracy among high government officials to destroy a presidential campaign of the opposing party (or provide an "insurance policy" if Trump should win) reads like a bad book report written by a disinterested fourth grader. Not a shred of the usual NYT editorializing, not a scintilla of added information, not a hint of investigative enthusiasm—flat and detached.

But that's all part of the master strategy. Now that the 'newspaper of record' (LOL) has reported (well, more like recited) what their Dem masters have given them, any future revelations—and those revelations are coming—will be waved off with a yawn, "old news, already covered in our 'groundbreaking' article, nothing more to see here, move along."

So to add to the Dem strategy noted earlier:

6. Make any future revelations "old news" so that the trained hamsters have an excuse for not covering them.

Hemingway goes on to cite (read the whole thing) a number of "takeaways" from the NYT article. Here are the three most important in my view: First, FBI officials admit they spied on Trump's campaign. Second, the Dems are terrified about the looming Inspector General Report, and third, the surveillance involved wiretaps, National Security Letters, and at least one spy.

The interesting thing to watch is how the Dems and their trained hamsters apply their strategy to cover-up what may very well be the biggest scandal in American political history. If recent history serves, they'll succeed. And if for some reason you're rooting for their success, you don't give a damn about our democracy, about the rule of law, about the weaponization of major government agencies, about the politicization of intelligence, and about basic fairness.

Inadvertently, the bland NYT article, written to temper the blow of coming revelations, gives us a window into the reprehensible activities gladly executed by rabid partisans in the Obama administration. The perpetrators should be indicted and jailed, but our intrepid special counsel is nowhere to be seen.