Sounds like something out of a spy novel, no? And perhaps it could be fiction, but as the reporting team at Public argues, it certainly explains the start of Operation Crossfire Hurricane better than a stupid bar conversation with George Papadapolous.
Instead, “multiple sources” tell Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag that the Russla-collusion hoax began as a deliberate attempt by the CIA to spy on and discredit Donald Trump in the 2016 election. To accomplish this, the CIA enlisted the other four “Five Eyes” intel agencies to mask the CIA’s operation, according to these sources … and thus far, only according to these sources:
Now, multiple credible sources tell Public and Racket that the United States Intelligence Community (IC), including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), illegally mobilized foreign intelligence agencies to target Trump advisors long before the summer of 2016. …
Until now, the official story has been that the FBI’s investigation began after Australian intelligence officials told US officials that a Trump aide had boasted to an Australian diplomat that Russia had damning material about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
In truth, the US IC asked the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance to surveil Trump’s associates and share the intelligence they acquired with US agencies, say sources close to a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HSPCI) investigation. The Five Eyes nations are the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
If true, this would deal a devastating blow to the US intel community, the political establishment, and indeed the credibility of the US government. It would instantly validate practically every conspiracy theory about the CIA since Watergate — and not just on the Right, either. It would also undermine our ties to our closest allies and perhaps destroy an intelligence arrangement that has kept the West relatively safe and secure for decades.
All of which makes my skepticism meter peg into the red.
Could this be true? We already know about the Russia-collusion hoax and the failure of institutions to act with integrity around it from John Durham’s special counsel probe, and especially from Inspector General Michael Horowitz’ exhaustive report. Let’s not forget the 51 former intel and nat-sec officials that concluded Hunter Biden’s laptop was a Russian intelligence ploy, too, which itself could be characterized as election interference. It’s possible that Western intelligence agencies tried to interfere more substantively with an American presidential election than just through punditry. And if it can be proven true, then that would require wholesale reform of the CIA and the national-security apparatuses here in the US and other Five Eyes countries.
But by the same token, it’s also possible that hostile intel agencies are targeting the US electorate with — dare I say it? — disinformation. Who benefits from this claim if believed and acted upon by dismantling the intel structures of the West? Efforts to use disinformation to trigger purges in the nat-sec arena go back at least to Hitler’s success in triggering Stalin into a massive defenestration that helped set the table for the initial successes of Germany’s invasion of Russia in 1941.
That’s possible, too. Likely? Not really, and Taibbi at least is a seasoned enough journalist to have his own skepticism meter fully operational. But it would be foolish to dismiss the possibility.
The maxim in this situation should be that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Public’s trio doesn’t provide that; it only offers anonymous sources and a reference to a binder of information that supposedly documents this conspiracy. That’s the binder that Trump wanted declassified, their sources say:
Unknown details about the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign and raw intelligence related to the IC’s surveillance of the Trump campaign are in a 10-inch binder that Trump ordered to be declassified at the very end of his term, sources told Public and Racket.
If the top-secret documents exist proving these charges, they are potentially proof that multiple US intelligence officials broke laws against spying and election interference.
Again, this is possible and even sounds plausible. However, it raises its own questions. If Trump really did have this binder and it wouldn’t just exonerate him but would indict his political opponents, why didn’t he declassify and publish it? No one ever accused Trump of being too cautious with sensitive materials and information, after all, nor of being slow to act in his own interests.
And why are we only hearing about it now, through anonymous sources? Wouldn’t Trump have demanded its declassification repeatedly after leaving office? Certainly Trump would have alerted James Comer and Jim Jordan to subpoena the FBI and CIA to get direct access to these materials, if they exist and would blow up the alleged conspiracy to undermine him.
The Skept-O-Meter remains pegged into the red, in other words.
It’s certainly an intriguing angle, in all senses of the word. To quote Buffalo Springfield: There’s something happening here, and what it is ain’t exactly clear. Comer and Jordan may want to take a close look at it before time runs out on their majority and subpoena power.