Free From the Russia Probe, Trump Stalwarts Want Revenge

I honestly never feared the end of the Mueller report resulting in Donald Trump walking free.

I had deep concerns for what would follow. I had concerns about his supporters and how they would react.

For two years, I’ve listened to the cacophony of their gutter rhetoric, insane conspiracy theories, and outward, open nastiness towards anyone, no matter who it was, that didn’t pledge undying fealty to King Donnie the Most High.

This is not an exaggeration, on my part. The fervor of Trump’s fan club is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced for any political figure. When you see the term “Cult 45,” that’s not just idle banter. It’s real.

Recently, a video clip of a Trump supporter declaring that she would accept a dictatorship in the United States, as long as it was a Trump dictatorship caught the attention of social media.

Was she an anomaly?

Not by much.

This was open talk of sedition, and an abandonment of the ideals of a free republic, not just in an online forum, but as she stood before a room full of likeminded Trumpians.

I’ve seen others cheering on the notion of imprisoning anyone who did their job in this probe, including Robert Mueller, himself, although they’ve broken no laws.

And now, with the president free from the wispy bonds of the Russia probe, those members of Congress who have been complicit in exacerbating this toxic mindset feel unbound, prepared to wreak revenge.

One of those who seeks to use our government to punish “political enemies” would be the slime-covered California Congressman Devin Nunes.

Nunes is best known for his efforts to obstruct the work of the House Oversight Committee, which he chaired, at the time.

Democrats now control the House and those committees, but Nunes still has powers as a member of Congress, and he’s targeting our nation’s intelligence community, as retaliation for investigating President Trump’s potential ties to a hostile foreign government.

Now, maybe it’s just my stubborn insistence on holding all accountable and principles that won’t allow me to put party above the country’s well-being, but something seems really unsavory about attempting to punish our intelligence community for doing their job.

Nunes took to American Pravda (Fox “News”) to announce that he’ll be bringing criminal charges – possibly as early as next week – against anyone in the FBI or Justice Department who might have what he calls “political bias.”

In other words, if they can prove someone is not a Trump supporter, they will be marked as criminals, no matter what their record of service to the nation and law enforcement may be.

During an interview on Fox News, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee said he is targeting “people who lied to Congress, perjury, criminal conspiracy.”

Noting that “will be hopefully by the end of next week,” Nunes said his team will work to “make as much public as possible.”

An interesting point of note: Nunes previously breathed out these threats along with demands to see the full Mueller report.

Here we are, and while it appears there are no provable, direct links between the president and the Kremlin, with the obstruction charges being left in limbo by special counsel, all the public has to go on is Trump’s newly appointed Attorney General William Barr’s cursory summary.

He turned in 4 pages to Congress, summarizing Mueller’s voluminous report. The most recent word is that within a few weeks, he’ll turn in another summary, but will not turn over the full report.

Apparently, Nunes is just fine with it, now. He just wants to start locking up anyone that had a hand in this investigation.

I wonder why?

He wants to start his campaign of political revenge against Democrats he says were responsible for promoting the Russia dossier, compiled by the former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steel.

He forgets that it was a conservative website that first commissioned the dossier. When it was dropped (after Trump became the GOP nominee), the Clinton campaign picked it up, then they let it go.

Steel was so concerned by what he was digging up that he approached the FBI with his findings, himself.

Unlike what Trump’s supporters claim, the dossier has not been discredited, although many parts remain unsubstantiated.

There’s a difference between “discredited” and “unsubstantiated.”

Nunes also has a problem with the FISA warrant on former Trump campaign aide, Carter Page.

The FISA warrant was lawfully obtained, signed off on by a judge, after the evidence presented gave authorities reason to believe he was somehow compromised by his connections.

In fact, there are so many links between Trump’s campaign team and Russia, that it would be a dereliction of duty for our intelligence community not to investigate to the fullest extent.

“What needs to happen is we need to have full transparency in this matter. Full transparency,” Nunes said Tuesday. “There was a lot of — the FBI and DOJ have claimed falsely that this investigation started in July 2016. That was a lie.”

“We need to know all the informants and everybody they were running into the Trump campaign because what happened here is wrong,” he added. “The FBI, the Department of Justice should not be able to use counterintelligence capabilities that are used to target terrorists and other bad guys around the globe against political parties. Republicans and Democrats should agree political opposition research from one candidate should not be used to let the nation’s top spy capabilities be used against political parties.”

I’d say using counterintelligence to locate those in our government who are potentially working with a hostile foreign government is exactly how those capabilities should be used.

As for full transparency – talk to William Barr and release the report.

It’s not just Nunes. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham wants to reopen the old investigations into Hillary Clinton’s activities. He wants another special counsel seated for that purpose.

I get it. I think the Obama administration obstructed, as well. I thought the case was handled badly and justice was not served.

This, however, looks like a pursuit of political enemies, and it feels so corrupt and wrong, there is no way the GOP will ever be able to claim the road of principle or American exceptionalism, ever again. This is the behavior of a third world tyranny.

It is what Donald Trump has caused within the party and if Republican lawmakers pursue this, they deserve to be ejected from their seats of power.

So what does our government look like, now?

We have a president who pushes economy-killing trade wars, while stepping all over the constitutional separation of powers among the governing branches, and bending over backwards to cater to our geopolitical foes, giving them far more deference than he gives his own government.

He has been emboldened by the outcome of Robert Mueller’s investigation, and a host of fence-straddling cowards that waited until he was cleared to suddenly jump in with both feet and declare themselves members of the Branch Trumpidians.

He couldn’t do this if the people voting for party over country didn’t allow it, or at least choose to ignore it, for the sake of some imagined political win.

There are no balls and strikes to call, here, because no matter which of the Big Two political parties is in power, it appears the nation will lose.