How a Smear Becomes a Law: Non-Schoolhouse Rock Version

The recent news about John Durham’s indictment led me back to reading about the plot against the president. 

The Deep State can work fast: the Steele dossier was planted in the media two weeks before Trump sworn in, FBI tries to entrap Flynn four days after inauguration and he’s tossed two weeks later, Sessions recuses himself two weeks after that, FBI investigation opened eight weeks after that, and then special counsel Mueller is appointed a week later. 

So the deep state was able to take out Flynn and effectively Sessions in just a month, and helped clip Trump’s approval rating from 45% on 1/20 to 39% on 3/20. 

It took Trump almost four months to take out Comey.  Trump was playing defense and the offense has the advantage of the element of surprise. (We saw it in the 2020 election where Trump was very late to the game of concern over voter fraud.)

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The spy agencies worked fast but the ground was prepared back in 2015. The first glimmers of rogue actions begin in October of 2015 when a CIA contractor is hired by Fusion GPS to find dirt on alleged Trump ties to Russian organized crime figures. 


The backdrop is that on September 10th, CNN reported that Trump’s support had “surged to 32%” in a poll and that “most Republican voters (51%) think Trump is most likely to emerge as the GOP winner.” 

In January of ’16, Christopher Steele begins talking to Obama’s DOJ about Trump and Russia. 

In February, Trump wins most of the delegates of the early primaries. 

In March, a smear campaign begins in press about Trump team’s ties to Russia. Only three candidates are left in GOP race. 

In May, Trump becomes the presumptive GOP nominee. 

In July, the FBI opens an umbrella investigation into pretty much everyone associated with Trump. 

In mid-August FBI’s Peter Strzok sends the “insurance policy” text to FBI lawyer Lisa Page.