Indicting 13 Russian businessmen for meddling in the U.S. election primarily through social media, 73-year-old Special Counsel Robert Mueller knows that none of them will ever face a U.S. court. Announcing the indictments Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller Special Counsel May 17, 2017, said that no U.S. official knowingly participated in a Russian plot to influence the election. House Intelligence Commttee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) insists that Mueller has plenty of evidence to conclude Trump campaign officials colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. Rosenstein made clear, contrary to Schiff, that Russian propaganda efforts had no measurable effect on the 2016 election, upending Schiff’s theory that Trump’s Russian collusion handed him the election. Mueller’s indictments show how little he’s found 10 months into his job.
Trump’s National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, said there was “incontrovertible” evidence of a Russian plot to influence the 2016 election. “Incontrovertible” evidence of a “plot” to influence a U.S. election is tantamount, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, to “blabber.” If Russia used propaganda to sell a the American public on Trump over former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, that’s well within a country’s right to lobby for the outcome of their choice. Mueller’s indictments make it sound like Russian propaganda, even carefully orchestrated plot, violates U.S. criminal laws. Whether the Kremlin or independent Russian businessmen used propaganda to advance an agenda in the U.S., it’s protected by U.S. free speech. Whether the FBI likes it or not, pernicious propaganda occurs daily in the U.S.
For partisans like Schiff, there’s plenty of evidence of Trump’s Russian collusion in the 2016 campaign. Schiff often sites a June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian lawyer Valerie Veselnitskaya. Even if Veselnitskyaya claimed to have dirt on Hillary, she didn’t represent Russian President Vladimir Putin or the Kremlin. When Hillary’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid FusionGPS to dig up dirt from their Kremlin contacts on Trump AKA “the dossier,” how does that differ from a Russian attorney claiming to have dirt on Hillary. Schiff also cites as proof of Russian collusion the fact that WikiLeaks released hacked emails on Hillary showing she sabotaged the campaign of her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) or received debate questions from interim DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile. Yet Schiff’s entire focus is on proving Trump’s Russian collusion.
McMaster wanted to make a point at the Munich Security Conference that propaganda flows freely from the Russia to U.S. “As you can see with the FBI indictments, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain,” McMaster said in Munich. McMaster know the history of the Cold War where both the U.S. and Russia engage in reciprocal propaganda to win the hearts-and-minds of countries around the globe. Demonstrating that Russian operatives inserted fake news stories in Facebook or other U.S. social media, doesn’t violate any U.S. laws. Whether you like propaganda or not, it’s a way of life in every industry and political discussion in the U.S. Intel agencies are “more and more adept at tracking the origins of this espionage and subversion,” said McMaster, not admitting that the U.S. does the same thing in many foreign countries, including Russia.
Lavrov expressed skepticism at the FBI’s latest grandstanding. “I have no response,” said Lavrov. “You can publish anything, and we see those indictments multiplying, the statements multiplying,” rejecting the idea that there’s any proof of an organized plot to subvert American democracy. When the First Amendment grants any wackadoodle to say anything, no matter how off-the-wall, what’s the crime in foreign actors posting an image of Hillary getting locked up. Political cartoons permit anyone to make statements, good, bad or indifferent, to advance personal or group agendas. When groups like Black Lives Matter wish to characterize the president as racist, whether it’s factual or not, they’re entitled to advance their options, even if its an orchestrated plot to discourage voters from voting for Trump. Propaganda is a way-of-life in today’s U.S. media circus.
Indicting 13 Russian businessmen without the slightest prospect of going to court shows the desperation of the Special Counsel at this point to stay relevant. With all the obvious evidence of Trump’s Russian collusion according to Schiff, why hasn’t Mueller returned any collusion indictments to Trump campaign officials? Indicting minor Trump players like George Papadopoulos or even former National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn on perjury for lying the FBI about their conversations with former Amb. Sergey Kislyaak doesn’t come close to proving Trump’s Russian collusion. Indicting Trump’s former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort for money laundering for consulting work 10 years before the 2016 election in the Ukraine shows how little Mueller has of anything substantive. “Until we see the facts, everything else is just blabber. I’m sorry for this not very diplomatic expression,” said Lavrov.
