Neither of these two articles are news, exactly, but both are shrewd commentary and both deal with the current state of play in the Russia Hoax on the Dem side. The narrative has collapsed and current events make its collapse ever more apparent. Indeed, the collapse is increasingly dangerous for the Dems themselves, who look to be caught in the house of cards as it comes crashing down.
Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst, points out in Mueller, Dems Scramble as Russiagate Falls Apart that the entire Russia Hoax is collapsing. Now, that slow motion collapse has been apparent for quite some time, but McGovern is pointing out that this collapse is now becoming official. McGovern focuses on the two prongs of the Russia Hoax "collusion" narrative--the supposed Russian government "meddling" via social media, and the supposed Russian "hacking" of the DNC. He does this in the context of the current delay in Mueller's testimony to the House.
Another important point to bear in mind in all this is that Mueller's bizarre no-questions press conference--so seemingly inexplicable at the time--can now be seen to have been the price Mueller had to pay to avoid criminal contempt charges in the New York court room of Judge Dabney Friedrich, who is presiding over the Concord Management:
Friday’s surprising report that Robert Mueller had successfully sought an extra week to prepare for his House testimony on Russiagate (now set for July 24) must have come as scary news to those of his fans who can put two and two together. Over the past few weeks, it has become clearer that each of the two frayed findings of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election has now come apart at the seams.
Saturday’s New York Times reports that “the Democrats said they chose to delay at the request of Mr. Mueller” after a day of negotiations, “as both Democrats and Republicans were deep in preparations for his testimony” earlier scheduled for July 17. ...
["two recent bombshell revelations from the United States District Court"]
Perhaps the most damning of the two came last Monday, when it was disclosed that, on July 1, Judge Dabney Friedrich ordered Mueller to stop pretending he had proof that the Russian government was behind the Internet Research Agency’s supposed attempt to interfere via social media in the 2016 election. ...
... Mueller’s other twin charge – Russian hacking of the DNC – also has been shown, in a separate Court case, to be bereft of credible evidence.
No, the incomplete, redacted, secondhand “forensics” draft that former FBI Director James Comey decided to settle for from the Democratic National Committee-hired CrowdStrike firm does not qualify as credible evidence. ... In fact, the new facts – emerging, oddly, from the U.S. District Court, pose such a fundamental challenge to Mueller’s findings that no one should be surprised if Mueller’s testimony is postponed again.
...
And now we know, courtesy of Judge Friederich, that Mueller has never produced proof, beyond his say-so, that the Russian government was responsible for the activities of the IRA – feckless as they were. ...
The Other Prong: Hacking the DNC
The second of Mueller’s two major accusations of Russian interference, as noted above, charged that “a Russian intelligence service conducted computer-intrusion operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working in the Clinton campaign, and then released stolen documents.” Sadly for Russiagate aficionados, the evidence behind that charge doesn’t hold water either.
...
The revelation came in a court filing by the government in the pretrial phase of Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative who had an unofficial role in the campaign of candidate Donald Trump. Stone has been charged with misleading Congress, obstructing justice and intimidating a witness.
The filing was in response to a motion by Stone’s lawyers asking for “unredacted reports” from CrowdStrike challenging the government to prove that Russia hacked the DNC server. “The government … does not possess the information the defendant seeks,” the DOJ filing says.
Small wonder that Mueller had hoped to escape further questioning. If he does testify on July 24, the committee hearings will be well worth watching.
Read it all. It's enjoyable.
Former Congressman Darrell Issa focuses precisely on the delay in Mueller's testimony, from the Dem perspective: Democrats can delay Mueller hearings, but it won’t help. Drawing on his time in Congress he argues that the impeachment theater that Jerry Nadler is attempting to conduct has flopped before it even opened. The hearing will fails to fulfill its purpose because the basis is totally lacking:
We have our first big reveal of the highly anticipated Robert Mueller testimony before the House of Representatives. And like so many summer flops, the previews are a lot more interesting than the full show.
After rushing to judgment, sprinting to subpoena and naming a time and place for Mueller to deliver the goods, the Democrats clearly couldn’t decide what to ask, didn't know what embarrassing details any answers might reveal, and weren't ready to do any of this in public. So they hit pause and gave themselves a week to figure it out. It won't be long enough.
Here's why.
...
When the majority has the momentum, built from information, evidence and eyewitness account, the hearing day can’t come soon enough. When those advantages are absent, there’s never enough time to bring it all together.
From the moment that Attorney General William Barr accurately summarized the baseline findings of Mueller and his team – and revealed that Russian collusion was a delusion all along – Washington’s conspiracy caucus has cast about for a way to keep on offense, even as their hopes for a summer of scandal crumbled and their multi-year narrative of Russian collusion collapsed.
Putting aside the fact this wasn’t right, it was never going to work: It wasn’t an investigation of the cause of a crime, it was an investigation in search of a crime.
It isn’t more time that’s needed to set this back on track for the Democrats. It’s more truth. The problem is, the more we have come to learn about the questionable-to-corrupt practices of the DOJ, FBI and Obama officials in both, the more true it appears that the president was comprehensively targeted and the American public was systematically deceived.
...
When that didn’t work, the heaviest of artillery was deployed: Former FBI Director and longtime Washington figure Robert Mueller was named special prosecutor and given a massive budget, dozens of lawyers, the sweeping powers of federal law enforcement, and all the time he would need.
...
In the final analysis, Congressional hearings and oversight investigations are commonly framed among three central questions: What happened? Why did it happen? How can it be prevented from happening again? These queries are the foundation of how oversight is done right.
But none of that will be present ... Nadler ... and his colleagues declared President Trump guilty years ago and have been on the hunt ever since for the proof. Finding none and refusing to admit it, they are reduced to dragging a clearly reluctant Mueller into the limelight, then postponing it all when they weren’t ready for prime time.
The irony is there for all to see: A year ago, the Democrats couldn’t wait to hold hearings. Now, they don’t know what to ask or when to start. Another week won’t fix it.
Again, read it all.
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