Over the past two years, as the Russia and Ukraine investigations unfolded, President Donald Trump has tried repeatedly to turn the expanding indictment of his own criminal misconduct into a case against his political adversaries. “Treason!” he tweets every few days, punctuating his outlandish claim that the investigations of sleazy and potentially unlawful behavior by him, members of his family, his campaign aides and his appointees represented a nefarious “deep state” conspiracy.
Although Trump himself lacks any capacity to articulate these absurdities — let alone prove them — the usual suspects at Fox News Channel and on Capitol Hill have spent many hours fabricating a narrative (while occasionally fabricating “proof,” too). They claim that the original investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia was illegitimate, as was the stunning indictment of national security adviser Michael Flynn during the new administration’s early days. Continue reading.