President Trump is in high dudgeon over his conspiracy-paranoid belief that the Obama administration "embedded" a spy in his campaign back in 2016. Now it's unclear whether Trump really believes this or whether its just another distraction from the serious corruption scandals that are erupting almost daily about his own administration.
Nevertheless, with the power of the presidency, Trump is forcing a showdown with the FBI and the Justice Department, demanding that they brief congressional leaders on this "spygate" material, which means revealing documents and findings in an ongoing investigation to the subject of that investigation (meaning Trump himself, because we know that Rep. Devin Nunes is a direct conduit to Trump.)
It's also forcing difficult decisions on Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, since AG Jess Sessions has recused himself from anything to do with the Russian collusion case. Many people feel that this was where Rosenstein should have drawn a line and said NO; others realize that he's buying time to hold on to his job, knowing that anyone Trump put in his place would likely be more pliable to Trump's demands.
I have a slightly different theory, one perhaps more favorable to Rosenstein. He knows that there is nothing there. They did not spy on the Trump campaign. Thus, revealing the demanded information knowing that it will only show that they were not in fact spying on the Trump campaign but were simply trying to find out what the Russians were up to.
And that, in the end, it would expose Team Trump even more as betraying their guilt to have made such a fuss over protecting the secrecy of their "wrong-doing" and, hence, their guilt.
In fact, following the Gang of Eight hearing, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), told reporters that they saw no evidence whatsoever that Trump's charges of a spy, embedded by our own intelligence services, had any truth to them. Schiff confirmed that it was just as Former DNI Clapper had said: the purpose of the contact by the informant was to find out what the Russians were up to.
The fact that Rep. Devin Nunes, Trump's water-carry-boy in Congress, did not beat Schiff to the bank of microphones to grab first dibs on the media tells me that he couldn't quickly and easily come up with a good story to repair the damage done by the Truth. Perhaps Rosenstein was right to let them have this meeting, knowing it would end the speculation and conspiracy-making vacuum.
On the other hand, Trump's operating modus is to keep demanding more and more until he gets a firm and final NO; so don't be lulled into thinking you can appease him with a bone or two. At some point, you will have to stand up to him.,
Now we await the Trump response. Will he be glad that his own government didn't spy on him? Or will he insist that our intel services still can't be trusted and that they must be lying and covering up even now? Or will he simply drop this -- without a whiff of apology or retraction -- and go on to some other false story to create more distraction?
Ralph
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