In 2005, American scientists deliberately sent a rocket to collide with a comet.  After the collision, scientists were able to conduct a detailed analysis of the internal composition of the comet from the spectrum of debris ejected from the crater.  It was a considerable achievement.  But my friend working for NASA commented on this event differently: “You have no idea how many doctoral dissertations were thrown in the toilet yesterday.”

We have no idea how many heart attacks occurred in Washington yesterday due to Special Counsel Mueller’s indictment.  And how many political careers will be thrown into the toilet today.

The creatures of the Washington swamp for the past year have invested almost all of their political capital in fanning the story of Trump’s criminal conspiracy with Vladimir Putin.  They were helped by the echo chamber of well fed courtier journalists and the higher-ups of the American intelligence agencies.  They secured the appointment of a special prosecutor, Mueller, to hold Trump accountable.

In other words, Mueller’s investigation was the rocket that was to kick Trump out of the White House.

The rocket’s blow was stunning – Mueller’s investigation fully vindicated Trump.  But Russian internet trolls were selected as the scapegoats.

In fairness, it should be noted that there is still a dose of reality in the indictment published by the Department of Justice on Friday.  Some of the thirteen Russians who obtained a tourist visa to the United States provided false information about their employment and the purpose of their visit.  If this allegation is proven in court, they will be banned from entering the U.S. forever.

However, they lied not only to the American government.  They also lied to the Russian government when they promised to influence the formation of public opinion in America.  The budget of the disinformation activities of the Russian intelligence is merely ludicrous – several million dollars.  For comparison, to seriously affect the election of just one congressman in an uncharted rural district in New Jersey, you need to spend five to ten times more.

Also, Russian internet trolls illegally used the stolen Social Security numbers and the dates of birth of real American citizens to open bank accounts and PayPal accounts and organize political rallies in the United States (both pro and contra Trump).  Illegal banking operations are a federal crime.

That’s all, folks.  Neither Trump nor his staff, as expected, is tarnished.  On the election results, the activity of the trolls did not affect much of anything (and how could they affect with the laughable penetration of the entire U.S. political advertising market to the tune of 0.001%?).

The missile, launched by the Obama’s Deep State, fell into the Trump White House but did not penetrate.

The criminal consequences for thirteen Russian scapegoats are more or less understandable (although few in America are interested).  But politically, the implications for those American politicians who not only became anti-Trumpists, but also burned all the political bridges behind them will be severe.  The political opposition is legal in America, but the delegitimization of the legally elected president is not.

Mueller finishes his investigation victoriously, although not at all as he intended.  After all, the State Department issued a visa to these Russians under the leadership of Obama.  And the FBI under the direction of Obama did not move a finger in this matter, although the organized activity of Russians on the English-speaking internet was known since 2015.

What will Obama’s Deep State do if Israel and the United Kingdom officially file charges against one of Obama’s lieutenants, Jim Messina, for precisely the same interference (and with the same result) in the democratic elections as what the Russians did?

In term of prognosis, it looks as though the word “impeachment” will disappear from the lexicon of the inhabitants of the Washington swamp from now on.  And all of a sudden, they will be able to see through Christopher Steele’s “Russian dossier” on Trump.  As if nothing had happened, they will begin to speak as a matter of course of the “active measures” disinformation campaign of the KGB or FSB.  Nothing sensational – the Russians have been doing this in the West since the mid-1930s.

They have had some successes over the years.  But not at this time.

Just when you thought the Deep State swamp couldn’t get any murkier and the stench any more repugnant, we are reminded by Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton in a Feb. 13 tweet of how Robert Mueller’s FBI worked with Lois Lerner’s IRS to target Tea Party and other groups in the run-up to the Obama re-election campaign:

@JudicialWatch lawsuit uncovered how Mueller’s FBI worked with Lois Lerner’s IRS to try to prosecute the very groups Obama IRS was suppressing. Another reason I don’t trust Mr. Mueller – or the FBI!

The treasure trove of documents detailing the weaponizing of powerful government agencies, including Mueller’s FBI, by the Obama administration to target the Tea Party was obtained by Judicial Watch as a result of court orders stemming from Freedom of Information Act lawsuits after the political targeting of the Tea Party:

Judicial Watch today released new Department of Justice (DOJ) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents that include an official “DOJ Recap” report detailing an October 2010 meeting between Lois Lerner, DOJ officials and the FBI to plan for the possible criminal prosecution of targeted nonprofit organizations for alleged illegal political activity.

The newly obtained records also reveal that the Obama DOJ wanted IRS employees who were going to testify to Congress to turn over documents to the DOJ before giving them to Congress. Records also detail how the Obama IRS gave the FBI 21 computer disks, containing 1.25 million pages of confidential IRS returns from 113,000 nonprofit social 501(c)(4) welfare groups – or nearly every 501(c)(4) in the United States – as part of its prosecution effort. According to a letter from then-House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, “This revelation likely means that the IRS – including possibly Lois Lerner – violated federal tax law by transmitting this information to the Justice Department.”

The documents were produced subsequent to court orders in two Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits: Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:14-cv-01956) and Judicial Watch v. Department of Justice https://www.judicialwatch.org/document-archive/jw-v-doj-01239-public-integrity-irs/ (No. 1:14-cv-01239).

The new IRS documents include a October 11, 2010 “DOJ Recap” memo sent by IRS Exempt Organizations Tax Law Specialist Siri Buller to Lerner and other top IRS officials explaining an October 8 meeting with representatives from the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and “one representative from the FBI” to discuss the possible criminal prosecution of nonprofit organizations for alleged political activity:

On October 8, 2010, Lois Lerner, Joe Urban [IRS Technical Advisor, TEGE], Judy Kindell [top aide to Lerner], Justin Lowe [Technical Advisor to the Commissioner of Tax-Exempt and Government Entities], and Siri Buller met with the section chief and other attorneys from the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, and one representative from the FBI, to discuss recent attention to the political activity of exempt organizations.

That attention involved harassment and intimidation of conservative groups opposed to Obamacare in particular and big government in general.  The irony is that the same Robert Mueller now investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election cooperated with Lois Lerner and the IRS to intervene on President Obama’s behalf in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election.  As Investor’s Business Daily editorialized, Tea Party activist Catherine Engelbrecht was a prime target of this effort at political suppression:

Shortly after Engelbrecht founded True the Vote, which trains election volunteers to help root out voter fraud, and King Street Patriots, a group with ideals similar to the Tea Party, and sought tax-exempt status from the IRS in July 2010 for both groups, she was hit by an onslaught of federal harassment.

After seeing nary a government official in two decades of operation, Engelbrecht and her equipment manufacturing company suddenly had the pleasure of six FBI domestic terrorism inquiries, an IRS visit, two IRS business audits, two IRS personal audits and inspections by both the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Engelbrecht’s persecution by the IRS and FBI was also detailed by Breitbart.com:

Engelbrecht’s troubling saga was originally reported by Breitbart News’ Brandon Darby. 

Engelbrecht’s application with the IRS for non-profit status allegedly triggered aggressive audits of one of her family’s personal businesses as well.  The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) began a series of inquiries about her and her group; the BATF (Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms) began demanding to see her family’s firearms in surprise audits of her and her husband’s small gun dealership – which had done less than $200 in sales; OSHA (Occupational Safety Hazards Administration) began a surprise audit of their small family manufacturing business; and the EPA-affiliated TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environment Quality) did a surprise visit and audit due to “a complaint being called in.” 

The Democratic Party of Texas filed a lawsuit against her, as did an ACORN affiliated group.  Both the FBI and the BATF continued to poke around her life, the lives of people in her Tea Party group, and her businesses.

This latest reminder or Mueller’s long history of supporting or protecting Democrats and their agenda comes just as it is revealed that another member of the Democratic elite was recently added to his star chamber staff of Democratic donors and Hillary sycophants:

An attorney on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team was a writer for HuffPost, The Daily Caller News Foundation has found.

Aaron Zelinsky, a self-described Democrat, wrote nearly 50 articles as a contributor for the liberal news outlet from 2009 to 2014.

“I’m a Democrat,” he wrote in November 2012.

A review of his articles shows that he supported President Barack Obama’s efforts to close Guantanamo Bay, opposed President George W. Bush’s policy on torture [sic], wrote in defense of gun control and argued for government-imposed limits on how much corporate executives can earn.

“Now is the time to begin enacting a progressive political agenda through the ballot box,” he wrote in a 2009 article on gay marriage [sic].

Zelinsky, who joined the Russia probe in June 2017, is not among the nine attorneys to have made federal donations.  But state records reveal a $100 donation he made to a Democratic committee in his home state of Connecticut in 2014, a couple months before he joined the Justice Department as a prosecutor.

Maybe Mueller can explain his efforts to interfere in the 2012 presidential election in cooperation with Lois Lerner and the IRS.  Or maybe he agrees with former IRS chief John Koskinen, who once famously said he and the IRS obeyed the law whenever they could. Maybe that should include Mueller and his FBI.  Maybe we need a special counsel to investigate the special counsel.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.

With former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s guilty plea likely to be set aside, the indictments announced yesterday by Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein, in tenor, scope, and timing, are a desperate attempt by Mueller to save his crumbling collusion investigation from complete failure.

“There is no allegation in this indictment that any American had any knowledge.”

“[There is] no allegation in the indictment of any effect on the outcome of the election.”  –Rod Rosenstein

June 23, 2013.  President Obama announces the appointment of James Comey to succeed Robert Mueller as head of the FBI.

There are some easily seen exigencies in the Mueller indictments of 13 Russians late Friday afternoon.

Why release the indictments on a Friday afternoon?  Friday is the traditional day in politics to announce something you want people to pay little attention to and quickly forget.  This is doubly true when it is a holiday weekend.  Monday is Presidents’ Day.

Friday afternoon at the beginning of a three-day weekend is probably one of the worst times to release something big, something that could shake to its core the very foundation of the Trump administration, because most Americans will pay little attention to this beyond reading the headlines – at least until Tuesday, when they return to work.

The timing was deliberately chosen to ensure that most Americans would be greatly aware of the fact that Mueller had made indictments in “Russiagate,” and that these indictments were of Russians, no less, and that there were many, thirteen in all.  Wow, that’s almost a dozen.

According to plan, Mueller is counting on most Americans having little information beyond that.  By Tuesday, I’m sure Mueller hopes many will have lost interest in the content of said indictments because in this world of instant everything, the extent of the allegations will be old news, and many will have already formed their ultimate opinion and thus won’t care about the nitty-gritty.

Why indict Russians, whom you can never bring to justice because there is no extradition treaty between the United States and Russia?

The crimes alleged and the people indicted are immaterial to it all.  In fact, it’s better for Mueller that none of those charged will ever see a day in court.  Fake identities on Facebook and Twitter and organizing rallies (mostly for Trump but also for Hillary) are not Earth-shattering crimes, and fake Facebook and Twitter accounts are not exactly rare.

It’s not as if Russia hasn’t always meddled in our elections.  Didn’t Barack Obama try to meddle in Israel’s election a few years ago?  Maybe Mueller should indict him – or maybe the Israelis should.

Oh, and let’s not forget: they also spent $100,000 on political advertising on Facebook and Twitter.  Please, give me a break – a hundred grand?  The coffee budget for the Clinton campaign was probably a lot more than that.  Are we supposed to believe that a hundred grand tipped a multibillion-dollar election?

Maybe Mueller should have indicted every American who has ever used a fake identity on Facebook and Twitter for political purposes.  Maybe Mueller should mobilize the Army and arrest everyone wearing a mask to hide his identity at an Antifa rally, done for political purposes and to raise money anonymously.

Why now, why this, and why them?

Mueller needed Russians.  The MSM will salivate in onanistic glee, while your basic low-information citizen will hear the word “Russian” and assume that it proves Trump guilty.  After all, it’s been in the news for some time that this investigation is about Trump’s collusion with the Russians to steal the election.

Most importantly, he needed as many indictments of Russians as he could get, and he needed them now for two reasons.  Reason one is that the indictments will give the media a basis to argue that the investigation is not the “witch hunt” it has increasingly been looking like, and reason two is that he is about to lose his prize: Flynn’s guilty plea.

Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser for a hot minute, copped a plea for lying to the FBI.  Judge Rudolf Contreras of the FISC (the court that accepted from the Obama administration the Steele dossier as evidence supporting the issuance of a FISA warrant to spy on members of the Trump campaign) accepted Flynn’s guilty plea.  Six days later, Contreras was recused from the case.

The new judge is Judge Emmet G. Sullivan.  His first order directed Mueller to release to Flynn’s lawyers any exculpatory evidence in Mueller’s possession.  He also ordered that “if the government has identified any information which is favorable to the defendant but which the government believes not to be material, the government shall submit such information to the Court for in camera review.”

In other words, any evidence Mueller feels is not material or contains classified information and therefore should not be released, must be provided to Judge Sullivan for him to make the determination as to what can and cannot be released – no hiding behind the magic of withholding evidence or prosecutor-determined redaction.

Andrew McCarthy, the former assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, who is famous for trying the “Blind Sheik,” Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, in the first World Trade Center bombing, noted, “Sullivan’s order supersedes the plea agreement and imposes on the special counsel the obligation to reveal any and all evidence suggesting that Flynn is innocent of the charge to which he has admitted guilt.”

You see, Judge Sullivan was the judge in the Ted Stevens case.  Do you remember him?  He was the 85-year-old Republican senator from Alaska whose conviction for corruption was set aside by Judge Sullivan because the prosecution withheld exculpatory information.  The prosecutors falsely charged and convicted a sitting U.S. senator who they knew was innocent.  It is believed that because of Stevens’s October conviction, he lost his November re-election bid to Democratic challenger Mark Begich.

Judge Sullivan angrily stated at the time when he set aside the conviction a month later that “[i]n nearly 25 years on the bench, I’ve never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I’ve seen in this case.”

Judge Sullivan also appointed an independent counsel to investigate misconduct by the government prosecutors.

Judge Sullivan is a man of honor.  Many once thought Mueller was as well.  Sullivan is not about to let prosecutors railroad another defendant in his court by withholding evidence.

Mueller’s no dope; he knows that his Flynn guilty plea is going to fly away.  After all, who would know better that if he can’t withhold or redact, he has no case?

He is also aware that without Flynn’s guilty plea and without these new indictments seeming to be more than they are but also bounteous in nature, his entire investigation will fold like the house of cards it is.  Lies and innuendo can get you only so far.

There you have it: meaningless indictments, for mostly meaningless and insignificant crimes to shore up a meaningless investigation about to take a big hit when Flynn’s prior guilty plea becomes meaningless.