Well written, logical analysis that deserves wide dessemination.
https://www.thenation.com/article/how-did-russiagate-begin/
How Did Russiagate Begin?
Why Barrs investigation is important and should be encouraged.
By Stephen F. Cohen
FTA:
...
One way to end Russiagate might be to discover how it actually began. Considering what we have learned, or been told, since the allegations became public nearly three years ago, in mid-2016, there seem to be at least three hypothetical possibilities:
1. One is the orthodox Russiagate explanation: Early on, sharp-eyed top officials of President Obamas intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA and FBI, detected truly suspicious contacts between Trumps presidential campaign and Russians linked to the Kremlin (whatever that may mean, considering that the presidential administration employs hundreds of people), and this discovery legitimately led to the full-scale counterintelligence investigation initiated in July 2016.
...
1. One is the orthodox Russiagate explanation: Early on, sharp-eyed top officials of President Obamas intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA and FBI, detected truly suspicious contacts between Trumps presidential campaign and Russians linked to the Kremlin (whatever that may mean, considering that the presidential administration employs hundreds of people), and this discovery legitimately led to the full-scale counterintelligence investigation initiated in July 2016.
...
3. The third possible explanationone I have termed Intelgate, and that I explore in my recent book War With Russia?: From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagateis that US intelligence agencies undertook an operation to damage, if not destroy, first the candidacy and then the presidency of Donald Trump.
...
We are left, then, with this paradox, formulated in a tweet on May 24 by the British journalist John OSullivan: Spygate is the first American scandal in which the government wants the facts published transparently but the media want to cover them up.
How Did Russiagate Begin?
Sigh.
2. The second explanationcurrently, and oddly, favored by non-comprehending pro-Trump commentators at Fox News and elsewhereis that Putins Kremlin pumped anti-Trump disinformation into the American media, primarily through what became known as the Steele Dossier.