The progressives’ Penny Dreadful about Donald Trump being put in the White House by Vladimir Putin is beginning to unravel. 

On March 2, Evelyn Farkas, a former deputy secretary of defense in the Obama administration, revealed on MSNBC that Obama officials were surveilling the Trump campaign.  Farkas resigned from her government post in September 2015 to become the senior foreign policy advisor for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.  Farkas stated: 

“the Trump folks, if they found out how we knew what we knew about their, the staff, the Trump staff’s dealing with Russians, that they would try to compromise those sources and methods, meaning we would no longer have access to that intelligence. So I became very worried, because not enough was coming out into the open, and I knew that there was more…. We have very good intelligence on Russia.  So then I had talked to some of my former colleagues, and I knew that they were trying to also help get information to the Hill.” 

On March 30 she appeared on MSNBC to claim that what she said was distorted and fake news.

"And on the dark campaign of fake news, you know, that's still ongoing. We see even someone like myself get swept up in all of this. You know, when people like me are speaking on behalf of process, people spin to it suit their needs. And I think it may be that the Russians are behind even such fake news today.”

The Russians may have attempted to interfere in our election.  They probably had no more success than the Gulf States, Mexico or the Mossad.   Powerful nations, including the U.S., frequently interfere in foreign elections.  There were contacts between Trump supporters and the Russians.  General Flynn and Senator Sessions spoke with the Russian ambassador.  What they said was probably perfectly innocent.  Flynn may have told the ambassador to be patient.  The belligerent Obama policy would end with Trump’s assumption of the presidency.  Flynn, a retired head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, must have known that his conversation was being recorded.  His suggestion was no worse than President Obama’s remark to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would be “more flexible” after the U.S. presidential election.

Would the Obama Administration “spy” on Americans?  Perhaps we could consult the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan.  Brennan stated before the Council of Foreign Relations,

“As far as the allegations of, you know, CIA hacking into, you know, Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, we wouldn’t do that. I mean, that’s, that’s just beyond the, you know, the scope of reason in terms of what we would do.” 

Brennan said this in response to allegations that the CIA was hacking Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein.  Unfortunately, he later had to apologize for his remarks when it was revealed that the CIA was in fact spying on the senator.  Director of National Intelligence James Clapper committed perjury during congressional testimony about spying on Americans.  The President had no problem with spying on Angela Merkel.   How extensive was FBI involvement in this spying?  Is the FBI investigating itself?  Should Director Comey recuse himself?

The accusation of Russian influence is being investigated by the FBI, CIA, NSA, the Senate Intelligence Committee, the House Intelligence Committee and thousands of reporters in the establishment media.  So far they have come up with nothing.  Much of the suspicion of Russian interference is based on the “Steele” dossier.  At one point the FBI was considering paying Steele for his information.  The Steele dossier is not a government document.  However, it was compiled by someone with experience in intelligence and should conform to certain basic principles.  The “Confidential” and “Sensitive Sources” marking on the cover page do not make sense.  “Sensitive Sources” are never “Confidential.”  Senator McCain forwarded the dossier to the FBI.  It had previously been provided to Vice President Biden.  Biden claimed “It surprised me in that it made it to the point where the agency, the FBI thought they had to pursue it.”  Biden realized that it was obviously bogus.  It is hard to believe that Senator McCain is less perceptive than the vice president.  The FBI may also be relying on information provided by the company Crowd Strike, a company with diminished credibility.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, stated: “let's take just one moment to review what we already know. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, ordered a deliberate campaign carefully constructed to undermine our election.  Russian operatives also hacked John Podesta.   This is not innuendo or false allegations.  This is not fake news.”  It appears senator has come to his conclusions prior to an investigation.  There is no evidence that Putin ordered this campaign.  If there is such evidence it was obtained from someone very close to the Russian president and it was extremely irresponsible for the senator to reveal this information.

Congressman Devin Nunes claims that the Obama White House surveilled members of the incoming Trump administration on subjects that had nothing to do with Russia.  The claim that this information was collected “incidentally” will not endure.  Nunes is being vilified for being an unsophisticated former dairy farmer and there are demands he recuse himself.  Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has begun his own investigation.  On March 6, Grassley demanded the FBI turn over documentation and answer questions about the Washington Post’s allegation that the FBI planned to pay for Steele’s information.  Grassley sent a follow-up letter on March 28 having not received answers to his first request.

The fifth column in the intelligence community can stonewall and the establishment media can obfuscate for only so long.  Patriotic members of the rank and file within the intelligence community will speak up.  We will be treated with headlines like “Trump Russia dossier key claim 'verified'” from the BBC.  The key claim is that there was a spy in the Russian embassy.  They could have consulted Inspector Clouseau for that piece of investigative reporting.  These media reports will not survive internet exposure.  

John Dietrich is a freelance writer and the author of The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy, Algora Publishing, 2013.