Once again, we have the conservative news media hammering at what it believes is a damning story while the mainstream media hasn’t reported on it at all.
Recently declassified documents have raised legitimate questions about whether the Trump-Russia collusion “Get Trump!” project was a deliberate, Barack Obama-approved plot in coordination with Clinton’s 2016 campaign and engineered by the “Deep State” intelligence community. This is being investigated, and it will be interesting to see if the Axis of Unethical Conduct can protect its heroes from the legal accountability they deserve. I thought it was pretty clear that this was what transpired long before Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard got involved, but of course, this makes me vulnerable to confirmation bias.
Last week, it was revealed that a whistle-blower, a veteran career intelligence officer working for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, had warned the FBI in 2017 that then Congressman Schiff had approved and actively orchestrated the leaking of sensitive classified intelligence aimed at undermining President Trump.
According to his testimony from 2023 interviews, the whistleblower explained that Schiff convened a staff meeting where he explicitly declared that the group would be leaking damaging classified information to impugn President Trump and his perceived legitimacy, with the goal of securing an indictment against him.
The whistleblower said he was close to Schiff and intelligence officials, but was horrified at Schiff’s actions, which he regarded as “unethical,” “illegal,” and “treasonous.” They were definitely unethical and illegal.
Investigative reporter Catherine Herridge just released FBI reports that reveal that Rep. Eric Swalwell, another Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and, amazingly, even a bigger load of pond scum than Schiff, was another habitual leaker of classified information. This should surprise no one. The reports further indicate that had Clinton won the 2016 election, she was planning on rewarding Schiff for his efforts by appointing him CIA director.
After the election. Schiff was convinced that Russia had elected Trump and that the United States was in the middle of a constitutional crisis. Coincidentally, classified information began leaking to the news media, notably the New York Times, which dutifully published it.
The documents strongly suggest an illegal effort by members of Congress, Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration along with intelligence personnel to use classified information to fabricate a public scandal to cripple Trump’s Presidency. It was an abuse of government power that has done massive damage to public confidence in our institutions and processes. Conservative pundits are writing that this was worse than Watergate. They have a strong argument.
Further observations:
1. We already know that Schiff lied repeatedly, on national TV and on the floor of the House, claiming he had “proof” that Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. He was, perhaps, the major Ethics Villain of the Post 2016 Election Ethics Train Wreck.
2. It tells you all you need to know about the ethics rot in California that this epic creep was elected a U.S. Senator. Being a declared enemy of Donald Trump is sufficient to make Californians deem the likes of Schiff worthy of the Senate. How disgusting.
3. The new revelations make me happier than ever that I abandoned my plans to hold my nose and vote for Hillary, when I realized in late October 2016 that she and her party were already trying to cheat to ensure her election. At that time, I didn’t realize just how corrupt and dangerous they were.
4. The Axis media spin on this story is that it is all about Trump seeking vengeance against his political foes. These are real crimes, serious ones, being alleged, committed by sitting public servants and a Presidential candidate, Clinton. It is indeed a Constitutional matter if the whistle-blower’s account is accurate.The Trump Administration has a duty to seek accountability. An independent, special prosecutor should be appointed so the Axis can’t keep spinning this as Trump’s revenge.
5. The New York Times, the primary beneficiary of Schiff’s leaks, has not published any substantial report on this developing scandal.
6. Gee, what a surprise.
Ethics Alarms 
This is the same thing I posted on Turley’s blog about this Schiff scandal…
Schiff has lied so many times to the American people that he’s become the modern day equivalent to “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. I don’t trust a word that comes out of his mouth as being the truth, not a single word.
Wasn’t Swalwell also *accidentally* leaking classified information to the Chinese as well?
And leaking INTO a Chinese.
Steven….
I would love to see the major players in the Russian Collusion Hoax indicted; these include Schiff, Brennan, Clapper, Comey. Indictments, and especially convictions, will provide accountability and justice, and will also deter future shenanigans and abuse of power.
At Townhall I see voices to bring indictments under the theory that the process is the punishment, as it was for Michael Flynn. I have doubts about this theory, for a number of reasons: a) it reeks of abuse of process, which I think is unethical b) only a conviction will lead to true vindication, and setting the historical record straight; an acquittal may vindicate the other side.
I also see some calls for going after Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Let’s assume that Barack Obama does not have presidential immunity on this issue, I still question whether it would be wise to pursue him; I am mindful here of the decision of Gerald Ford to pardon Richard Nixon, for the good of the country.
So maybe it is wise to only go after some high-ranking ugly white dudes who look like classical Hollywood villains, like Schiff, Brennan, Clapper, and, Comey; provided that the DOJ has the goods on them, and a amenable venue for trial to minimize the risk of jury nullification.
The only problem with that is that it looks like retaliation for the lawfare against Trump. I’m not saying that any of these clowns don’t deserve it, but Trump might be better off saying he is too busy trying to do for the American people to bring prosecutions that will look petty. The quiet part is he might be better off not risking the chance of an acquittal blowing up in his face. Believe me, I would not at all be sorry seeing Hillary in an orange jumpsuit, or Comey finally brought low from his supposedly lofty moral peak, but I think this country might be better off in the long run if we can put this war of the roses behind us.
That headline made me think Sen. Schiff had a different issue with leaking…
Nothing will come of this. As long as the mainstream news media does not report it or spins it against Trump:
A number of commenters suggest that prosecution of politicians and heads of federal agencies is futile because of leftwing media bias and TDS. AMG and Steve-O, please correct me if I misread your comments. This means that there will be no accountability and justice, and it also means that this will happen again in the future, because it worked so well the last time. I think this attitude is highly depressing. Are you willing to put up with a two-tier justice system, where wrongdoers who aligned one political party escape accountability, and people aligned with the other party are zealously prosecuted and have the book thrown at them whether they broke the law or not? Is this the country you want to live in? All that is needed for evil to win, is for others to do nothing. So if the DOJ has evidence of criminal wrongdoing, they should pursue criminal prosecution as the legal and ethically required course of action.
No, I don’t want a double-standard to exist in the justice system. Yes, the DOJ should pursue them, but the narrative has already been set by the Democrats and their allies in the news media, et al – Trump is abusing his power to go after political opponents.
They will get away with it because the news media has abrogated its responsibility to report the news fairly and accurately (and, ya know, actually report it instead of burying it) leaving Americans ignorant of the facts, to say nothing of how the justice system is supposed to work and facilitating Democratic Party propaganda to further fuel the Trump-Deranged on the Left.
And should anyone actually be convicted and jailed will be pardoned and released by the next Democrat in office because “Trump pardoned his criminal friends from January 6th, too!”
I have written often of my TDS-suffering sister. If Trump were to produce a document signed and sealed by Barack Obama with Obama’s DNA all over it, admitting that he made up the whole Russia Collusion hoax to undermine Trump’s administration, she wouldn’t believe it even if a slew of experts went on TV to authenticate it.
Should a future Democratic administration admit the whole thing, the excuse will be, “That was so long ago! What does it matter?”
And people will accept it.
Those hardcore TDS fanatics are in the minority. In the late nineteen fiftees people were also afraid of Joe McCarthy and the John Birch Society, and once people lost their fear, Joe McCarthy’s narratives were finally discredited.
The Democrat Party is in bad shape right now; but it is too early to say they are on the ropes. The GOP will still have challenges to win the midterms, and if they loose the Democrats will try to impeach Trump for the third time. If Trump leaves office in 2028, do you have any doubt that Laetitia James and Alvin Bragg will hesitate for a moment to get Trump convicted and sentenced in New York?
Fear for the mainstream media is overrated as well. How many people have a subscription to a newspaper? How many people do actually watch CNN and MSNBC? How many people do have cable TV? These media are slowly phased out in favor YouTube channels, TikTok channels, podcast, and other alternative media.
So my impression is that the DOJ better go full out on prosecution to at least control of the narrative for 2026 and 2028 elections. If a future President wants to pardon Schiff and Brennan, that is up to him. Fear is not a recipe for success.
“…if they loose the Democrats will try to impeach Trump for the third time.”
They’ll be fools if they do (so entirely possible). If they do (or even try to) impeach, they won’t get a conviction, and since Trump can’t run again, all they would get would be to reinforce their public image as petty, vindictive, and deranged…wasting time and accomplishing nothing.
And let’s not leave out Marc Elias. At a minimum, he should have his license yanked.
I think Russiagate is much worse than Watergate. Russiagate is in a class by itself. The most nefarious political dirty trick and attack on the separation of powers in the country’s history.
“An independent, special prosecutor should be appointed” I agree. Given the state of partisan division among both the electorate and the media (these are mutually reinforcing of course!) I think this is the only way of (at least to some degree, if not for the present moment, at least in retrospect as passions cool) avoiding what one side of the political divide is highly prone to see as obvious weaponization of the DOJ for political purposes.