In the National Review's "Stone Indictment Underscores That There Was No Trump-Russia Conspiracy," contributing editor Andrew McCarthy is simply aghast at Robert Muller's disingenuity.
The indictment is just the latest blatant demonstration that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office, the Department of Justice, and the FBI have known for many months that there was no such conspiracy. And yet, fully aware that the Obama administration, the Justice Department, and the FBI had assiduously crafted a public
narrative that Trump may have been in cahoots with the Russian regime, they have allowed that cloud of suspicion to hover over the presidency — over the Trump administration’s efforts to govern — heedless of the damage to the country.
The rationale for the Trump-Russia investigation … has been nothing more than a suspicion harbored by political, law-enforcement, and intelligence officials who loathed Donald Trump….
Not only was the suggestion of a Trump-Russia conspiracy not founded on fact. The officials calling the shots had reason to know that the premise was factually false.
McCarthy goes on at length about the Stone indictment, portraying a clueless gang — with Stone perhaps the most clueless — that couldn't shoot straight. But Mueller has never suggested that the Trump campaign's Russia collusion was smooth, slick or sophisticated. Stumblebums and poseurs are often at the center of political campaigns. Trump's was the finest example of that truism yet — and McCarthy's account merely re-confirms it. In concentrating on Stone's relationship — or non-relationship — with Wikileaks, McCarthy is able to overlook … well, see what follows.
In "Trump and His Associates Had More Than 100 Contacts With Russians Before the Inauguration," the NY Times has tracked down "more than 100 in-person meetings, phone calls, text messages, emails and private messages on Twitter," all made by "at least 17 campaign officials and advisers [who] had contacts with Russian nationals and WikiLeaks, or their intermediaries." If any politico ever wanted to give the appearance of crimes, this was it.
The list of contacts and contacters includes, for instance, Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov and his son, Emin, both of whom helped set up the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting "with a Kremlin-linked attorney" who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. In that month as well Trump was still working on plans for a Trump Tower-Moscow, in league with that model of integrity, Michael Cohen, who himself partnered with the Russian-American mobster Felix Sater, who had "deep contacts in Russia." (Sater's longest entry in Wikipedia is the section titled "Criminal convictions and federal cooperation.") All perfectly innocent, I'm sure.
The list goes on, and on, from Don Jr. to Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner, Roger Stone and George Papadopoulos, among others — a nest of con men, grifters and incompetents, breathtaking in its conspiratorial sleaze.
All this, McCarthy ignores. But that's not the weakest of his argument. No, his weakest link is when he aggressively argues that All-American Boy Scout Bob Mueller has "known for many months that there was no such conspiracy," and would "[allow a] cloud of suspicion to hover over the presidency — over the Trump administration’s efforts to govern — heedless of the damage to the country." That's just not believable.