Christmas came early for ABC's Brian Ross on Friday.  He breathlessly reported what the left has been wishing for under its tree on Christmas morning: "[Michael Flynn] is prepared to testify ... against President Trump, against members of the Trump family, and others in the White House."

This is it.  Send the paddy wagon for Trump, his entire family, his White House Staff, the works.  Turn Mar-a-Lago into a federal prison.  Joy Behar and her fellow magpies were giddy with delight.  The rest of the media followed suit, happily not having to talk about their fellow travelers who have been outed as sexual predators.  Or the Senate passing a tax bill.  Or Kate Steinle's illegal alien killer being given a pass, facing far less punishment than Mike Flynn, who gave false statements to the FBI.

Trump-haters in the media became hysterical, with Brian Ross of ABC embarrassing himself and his network by falsely reporting the contact as having taken place during the campaign, as Rick Moran reports.

So?  What is an incoming administration supposed to be doing?  The transition period is over two months long – not simply to interview and vet candidates for myriad administration posts, but to begin building relationships with foreign governments, friends and foes alike. It's also for discussing policies and future plans.

There is lots going on in the world that a new president must contend with.  It's hard to begin from scratch on inauguration day – which is why there is a transition period.  Trump would have rightly been criticized for not being well prepared to lead the country when he took the oath of office.

Brian Ross and the Washington Post also have short memories – especially when the previous president did the same thing, and before, not after the election.  As the WaPo buried toward the end of a recent story:

Michael McFaul, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration, said that he was in Moscow meeting with officials in the weeks leading up to Obama's 2008 election win.

In the "weeks leading up to the election," Obama was still a private citizen, not the president-elect.  Where was the outrage?  Where was the special counsel?  Where was Brian Ross?

If anything, this is a violation of the Logan Act, an old law that the fake news media are throwing around, specifically a "federal statute making it a crime for a citizen to confer with foreign governments against the interests of the United States."

Did candidate Obama have authorization from President Bush to meet with Moscow?  That was quite unlike President-Elect Trump, no longer just a citizen or a candidate, but a future president preparing to take office.  Or Ted Kennedy, who "made secret overtures to the Soviet Union's spy agency during the Cold War to thwart then-President Ronald Reagan's re-election."

And who cares who directed Flynn, as incoming national security adviser, to contact Russia or any other country?  Was it Trump himself?  Or one of his surrogates, including his son-in-law, Jared?  All standard and expected for an incoming administration.  Where's the crime?  Other than Flynn making false statements to the FBI?

What is Mueller charged with investigating?  "Coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump."  That would be the campaign, not the incoming administration.  Coordination means collusion, which thus far there is no evidence of.  Nothingburger.

The problem is that Flynn's communications with Russia were after the campaign, when Trump was the president-elect.  Instead, Flynn got caught up in "the special counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters."  This includes matters like contradicting himself when speaking to the FBI, just as Scooter Libby did.  It's a process crime only – a false statement about something irrelevant to the investigation and certainly not illegal.  A nothingburger for Mueller.

Mueller was appointed over six months ago.  Is this all he has after all the investigating, assisted with a bunch of Democrat lawyers, looking for anything to nail Donald Trump?  A process crime?  False statement to the FBI and nothing on his mandate of collusion with Russia to influence the election?

If Trump committed a crime, we would know about it after half a year of investigation by Mueller and his horde of investigators – and the intrepid investigators of every major news organization who would like nothing better than to nail Trump.

Who's happy over this, besides the left-wing media finally getting a bit of holiday cheer after months of horrible news exposing their "women's rights" icons as predators?  I'll bet Vladimir Putin is enjoying this immensely.  Mueller is accomplishing what the Russians could only dream of: sowing doubt and discord into the U.S. electoral process and the duly elected president.  Propaganda at its best.

Meanwhile, the special counsel marches along, looking for scalps, convictions, and pleas to justify the time and effort chasing windmills.  Forget In-N-Out Burger.  Mueller, when this all winds down, can join forces with James Comey and Brian Ross, opening a new burger chain, Nothingburger.  A fat bun with nothing in between.

Brian C Joondeph, M.D., MPS is a Denver-based physician and writer.  Follow him on Facebook,  LinkedIn, and Twitter.