Who’s The Boss?

Video: CNN;s @BrianStelter upset not enough media attention on Trump and Russia: “I was watching Good Morning America this weekend and both mornings they led with snowstorms and scares at malls…How can a morning show not lead with this drama?” pic.twitter.com/oYVsZsgxGp

— Brent Baker 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 (@BrentHBaker) January 13, 2019

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A story broke into the headlines this weekend, but the angle that the media is pimping is not the one that matters.

F.B.I. Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia

In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.

The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.

The investigation the F.B.I. opened into Mr. Trump also had a criminal aspect, which has long been publicly known: whether his firing of Mr. Comey constituted obstruction of justice.

Agents and senior F.B.I. officials had grown suspicious of Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign but held off on opening an investigation into him, the people said, in part because they were uncertain how to proceed with an inquiry of such sensitivity and magnitude. But the president’s activities before and after Mr. Comey’s firing in May 2017, particularly two instances in which Mr. Trump tied the Comey dismissal to the Russia investigation, helped prompt the counterintelligence aspect of the inquiry, the people said.

The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, took over the inquiry into Mr. Trump when he was appointed, days after F.B.I. officials opened it. That inquiry is part of Mr. Mueller’s broader examination of how Russian operatives interfered in the 2016 election and whether any Trump associates conspired with them. It is unclear whether Mr. Mueller is still pursuing the counterintelligence matter, and some former law enforcement officials outside the investigation have questioned whether agents overstepped in opening it.

The criminal and counterintelligence elements were coupled together into one investigation, former law enforcement officials said in interviews in recent weeks, because if Mr. Trump had ousted the head of the F.B.I. to impede or even end the Russia investigation, that was both a possible crime and a national security concern. The F.B.I.’s counterintelligence division handles national security matters.

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There is a word for this kind of thing. It’s called a “coup.” (If Barack Obama is reading this, the word is pronounced “koo”)

The media seems to think this story is bad for Trump. Your head has to be pretty far up your ass to think this story makes Trump look bad. This story makes the FBI look like corrupt Keystone Kops. All FBI authority is derivative of the authority of the President under Article II of the Constitution. If they can investigate the President then that would put them above him and that would be unconstitutional. Only Congress has that kind of power.

Buried several paragraphs down you’ll find this sentence:

No evidence has emerged publicly that Mr. Trump was secretly in contact with or took direction from Russian government officials.

Given that the government leaks like an old lady with incontinence problems, I think we can safely say, “No evidence exists” that Trump was secretly in contact with Russia. But what if he was? Trump doesn’t need the approval of the FBI to engage in negotiations with a foreign government. He doesn’t even need to tell them that he’s doing it.

As a matter of fact, I believe that the President could lie to the FBI and say he wasn’t talking to Putin when he actually was. Let’s say that Trump is secretly negotiating a treaty with Russia that would resolve every single issue we have with them. Trump knows that if the story leaks that Democrats and Deep Staters would sabotage the negotiations. So he is keeping everyone else in the dark until the deal is done.

Now let’s say that the FBI becomes aware that Jared Kushner secretly met with a Putin envoy while ostensibly on vacation in France. They start an investigation. Do they have to tell Trump? Damn straight they do. So Trump tells them to quash the investigation without telling them why. Do they get to keep secretly investigating?

Fuck no.

The last thing I want to point out is that when Comey was fired it wasn’t exactly a big shock to anyone. And even though Trump doesn’t need a reason, Comey’s firing was not only more than justified based on what we knew then, subsequent revelations have shown that Comey should have been fired much earlier.

This story doesn’t break any new ground. It’s not just fake news, it is recycled fake news.

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What Democrats see when they peek out their windows.