{"id":12059,"date":"2019-11-14T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T18:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=12059"},"modified":"2019-11-13T12:58:36","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T20:58:36","slug":"trump-russia-investigation-rested-on-a-house-of-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-russia-investigation-rested-on-a-house-of-cards\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Russia investigation rested on a house of cards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Please\u00a0read\u00a0the\u00a0following\u00a0article\u00a0by\u00a0my\u00a0colleague\u00a0Paul\u00a0Gregory\u00a0in\u00a0The\u00a0Washington\u00a0Times<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A review of the public record demonstrates that the Russia investigation rested on a house of cards assembled by high-level officials to prevent Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s election or to ensure that his administration would fail. This conclusion rests on mainstream media accounts, primarily of The New York Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russia probe imposed a considerable cost in terms of international status, domestic tranquility, political paralysis and a challenge to the outcome of a democratic election. It weakened the Trump presidency to the benefit of his political opponents, and boosted Vladimir Putin\u2019s claim of the crookedness of American democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Trump<\/a>\u2019s narrative is that political enemies launched a phony and premeditated \u201cwitch hunt\u201d designed to remove him from the office to which he was duly elected by 63 million voters. He insists that he had no contacts with Russian officials. He and his small campaign had no time for hanky-panky with the Kremlin. His opponents did not even have the sense to know his infamous public call to the Russians to find Hillary Clinton\u2019s emails was a joke. Mr. Trump<\/a> notes that no sane person would collude with a foreign power on national television.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump<\/a>\u2019s opponents in media and in the national security community claim that Mr. Trump<\/a>\u2019s Russian contacts, campaign statements and actions of campaign advisers justified the FBI\u2019s Crossfire Hurricane investigation (July 2016), the FISA surveillance warrants on a campaign adviser (October 2016-June 2017), and the appointment of a special counsel (May 17, 2017). The anti-Trump<\/a> forces assert that they did everything by the book as conscientious career officers charged with defending the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please\u00a0read\u00a0the\u00a0following\u00a0article\u00a0by\u00a0my\u00a0colleague\u00a0Paul\u00a0Gregory\u00a0in\u00a0The\u00a0Washington\u00a0Times A review of the public record demonstrates that the Russia investigation rested on a house of cards assembled by high-level officials to prevent Donald Trump\u2019s election or to ensure that his administration would fail. This conclusion rests on mainstream media accounts, primarily of The New York Times. The Russia probe imposed a considerable cost in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-38v","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11012,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-paradoxes-of-the-mueller-investigation\/","url_meta":{"origin":12059,"position":0},"title":"The Paradoxes of the Mueller Investigation","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review They are numerous, and none of them are good news for President Trump\u2019s opponents. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals for allegedly conspiring to sow confusion in the 2016 presidential election. The chance of extraditing any of the accused from Vladimir\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Donald Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Donald Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/donald-trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11290,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/russianism\/","url_meta":{"origin":12059,"position":1},"title":"Russianism","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Trump\u2019s critics need a scapegoat to explain why they haven\u2019t managed to vanquish him. Russianism is a psychological malady in which furor at Donald Trump\u2019s election victory and presidency \u2014 and the ensuing depression resulting from the inability to abort it \u2014 finds release\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11763,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/with-mueller-hopes-gone-so-goes-progressive-unity\/","url_meta":{"origin":12059,"position":2},"title":"With Mueller Hopes Gone, So Goes Progressive Unity","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ American Greatness The Democratic Party has lots of radical new ideas, and lots of radical presidential candidates and politicos. But the common hatred of President Donald Trump has united otherwise quite disparate Democratic leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); former Vice President Joe Biden;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2020 Election"","block_context":{"text":"2020 Election","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/2020-election\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10353,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-progressive-boomerang\/","url_meta":{"origin":12059,"position":3},"title":"The Progressive Boomerang","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review \u00a0 Not only have progressives failed to take down the president, but they also haven\u2019t offered an alternative agenda. \u00a0 The progressive strategy of investigating President Donald Trump nonstop for Russian collusion or obstruction of justice or witness tampering so far has produced no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comey"","block_context":{"text":"Comey","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/comey\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10024,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-russian-farce\/","url_meta":{"origin":12059,"position":4},"title":"The Russian Farce","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Remember when Obama and Hillary cozied up to Putin? And recall when the media rejoiced at surveillance leaks about Team Trump? The American Left used to lecture the nation about its supposedly paranoid suspicions of Russia. The World War II alliance with Joseph Stalin\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Democrats"","block_context":{"text":"Democrats","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/democrats\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10394,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/russia-didnt-interfere-in-u-s-election-to-help-trump-but-to-destabilize-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":12059,"position":5},"title":"Russia Didn’t Interfere In U.S. Election To Help Trump, But To Destabilize America","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0By Paul Gregory \/\/ Forbes.com \u00a0(Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB\/AFP\/Getty Images) A still unidentified Democratic Party donor paid for the factually challenged\u00a0dossier that almost sunk the Donald Trump campaign. The dossier was created (and perhaps written) with the support and assistance of unregistered foreign agents of the Russian government,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/specials-images.forbesimg.com\/imageserve\/810247190\/960x0.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12060,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12059\/revisions\/12060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}