[Gay State Conservative]

It's my understanding that SOP when you going after a big conspiracy you first focus on the lesser players trying to get them to flip on the leaders...using the "carrot & stick" method.

To me at least this thing is complicated enough that I can't tell the players without a score card.But my guess is that the US Attorney appointed to work on this (from Connecticut?) will know how to proceed.

[Cboldt]

This abuse of power is an epidemic, not wholly coordinated, and likely involves every federal government agency, as well as the press, many foreign governments, and members of Congress.

In our federal government, at least the CIA, FBI, DOJ and State Department were all vectors using cooked up rumors to publicly smear the candidate, president-elect, and sitting president. But the Steele dossier is not the only focal point. There is the recent Mueller dossier (misnamed "report" to give it legitimacy), the "Russinas hacked the DNC" report by CIA, NSA and FBI back in January 2017, and chronic lies about remarks made by Trump on all subjects. Charlottesville lie, Kahn lie, encourages violence lie, the list goes on and on.

The government players violated civil rights all over the place, but in a way that naturally evades public detection. Snooping and wiretapping are clandestine activites - power that is there and always ripe for abuse. If you think the government can be trusted with that power, well, bless your heart. The government is not your friend, and it is dishonest by nature.