an Follies: The Sequel
By Clarice Feldman
Just days ago, on February 14 to be precise, Vladimir Putin said he prefers Biden in the 2024 presidential race. Nevertheless, the media, often with the intelligence community’s aid, seems to be trying again in the indictment of Vladimir Smirnov to hint that Donald Trump is somehow being aided by Russia. Thin gruel, indeed. A quick review of the FBI’s consistent election meddling and gaslighting of voters is the necessary background for this week’s account.
Background
In case, like me, you’re finding it hard to keep track of all the gaslighting on Russia in recent years, Adam Mill kindly documents 14 recent Russian hoaxes:
1. The Russian Co-Signers Hoax: In August of 2018, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell claimed Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin cosigned loans to Donald Trump from Deutsche Bank. MSNBC quickly retracted the claim when Trump threatened to sue.
2. The Trump Tower Russians Hoax: In July of 2017, The New York Times reported that Donald Trump, Jr. met with a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, at Trump Tower in 2016 in the hope that she had opposition research against Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Although a meeting did take place, the “Russian” in question shared a client with Fusion GPS -- the firm Clinton hired to frame Trump...
3. The Hunter Biden Russian Disinformation Hoax: In October of 2020, shortly after The New York Post reported on the contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop , 51 intelligence officials signed a letter characterizing the story as Russian disinformation…
4. The Russian Bounty for U.S. Soldiers Hoax: In June of 2020, NBC cited anonymous government sources who claimed that the Russians paid bounties to the Taliban for every U.S. soldier it killed. Later, after the election, NBC admitted the story could not be verified…
5. The “Russia Destroyed the Nord Stream Pipeline” Hoax: Shortly after the September 2022 destruction of the natural gas pipeline, anonymous Western officials blamed Russia for the explosion. The allegations quickly fell apart…
6. The “Carter Page Is a Russian Spy” Hoax: In order to justify spying on the Trump campaign, the FBI lied to a FISA court to obtain warrants spanning one year ending in 2017 to spy on Trump campaign figure, Carter Page.
7. The “Trump Is a Russian Asset” Hoax: This hoax may have started when Hillary Clinton paid Fusion GPS to smear Donald Trump, late in the spring of 2016. But the intelligence community quickly sponsored the allegation with anonymous leaks by “retired” intelligence officials.
8. The Russia/Alfa Bank Hoax: Days before the 2016 election, Slate reported that a “group of computer scientists” alleged that the Trump organization had a secret backchannel to a bank in Russia called, “Alfa Bank.”
9. The Russian Troll Farm Hoax: In 2018, Special Counsel Robert Mueller dismissed charges that two Russian companies (Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord) ran troll farms that interfered with the election… the Russian companies surprised the Justice Department by hiring an attorney who demanded proof of the wrongdoing. The Justice Department could not meet its evidentiary burden and dismissed the charges.
10. The “Devin Nunes Is a Putin Puppet” Hoax: In 2017, former Representative Devin Nunes led one of the most consequential congressional investigations of all time. Among the revelations his investigation uncovered is the discovery that Hillary Clinton paid for the Trump dossier that accused Trump of being a Russian puppet. So naturally, Nunes himself was accused of being a puppet of Russia.
11. The “James Comer Is a Putin Puppet” Hoax: More recently, there has been a coordinated counterstrike against House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer. Among the allegations: Comer is doing Putin’s bidding by investigating the Bidens. Related to this hoax is the hoax that the FBI’s arrest of a single witness topples the entire Comer case against Biden. On the contrary, Comer has produced undisputed bank records showing foreign payments to the Bidens including payments from Russia.
12. The Russian “Pee Tape” Hoax: Among the Clinton-financed smears against Donald Trump, none is more memorable than the allegation that Trump instructed two Russian prostitutes to urinate on a hotel bed during his visit to Russia. The FBI used taxpayer money to attempt to obtain this alleged video tape. Although the FBI did not have possession of any such tape, it appears that then-director James Comey used his knowledge of the operation to produce it in an attempt to blackmail the then-incoming President Trump…
13. The Michael Cohen Paid Russian Hackers Hoax: Steele alleged through his dossier that President Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, traveled to Prague in 2016 to pay the Russian hackers responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to obtain the emails later leaked by Wikileaks. Cohen quickly produced passport records to show the meeting never took place. Czech intelligence later corroborated the denial.
14. The Russian/DNC Hack Hoax: While it is possible that the Russians really were behind the hack of the DNC, there are legitimate reasons to question the claim that we know the Russians were behind it… For one thing, computer security experts have noted that the exfiltrated information downloaded too fast to be an over-the-internet hack.
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/02/russian_follies_the_sequel_.html
