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“A Better Deterrence”: Hillary Clinton Calls for the Arrest of Americans Spreading Disinformation
Jonathan Turley ^ | September 18, 2024 | Jonathan Turley

Posted on 09/18/2024 7:08:16 PM PDT by george76

Hillary Clinton has long been one of the most anti-free speech figures in American politics, including calling upon European officials to force Elon Musk to censor American citizens under the infamous Digital Services Act (DSA). She is now suggesting the arrest of Americans who spread what she considers disinformation. It is a crushingly ironic moment since it was her campaign that funded the infamous Steele dossier and spread false stories of Russian collusion during her presidential campaign. Presumably, that disinformation would not be treated as criminal viewpoints.

Speaking on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show this week, Clinton was asked about continued allegations of Russian efforts to disseminate Russian propaganda in the United States. Clinton responded:

“I think it’s important to indict the Russians, just as Muller indicted a lot of Russians who were engaged in direct election interference and boosting Trump back in 2016. But I also think there are Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda. And whether they should be civilly or even in some cases criminally charged is something that would be a better deterrence, because the Russians are unlikely, except in a very few cases, to ever stand trial in the United States.”

The interview was chillingly consistent with Clinton long antagonism toward free speech.

Clinton, of course, was not challenged by Maddow on the fact that her campaign was the conduit for disinformation linked to Russian intelligence services.

Not only did U.S. intelligence believe that the Clinton campaign was used to make the debunked claims, but it was clearly done for purely political purposes.

Clinton efforts were so obvious by July 2016 that former CIA Director John Brennan briefed former President Obama on Hillary Clinton’s alleged “plan” to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.” The Russian investigation was launched days after this briefing.

Her general counsel, Marc Elias, his former partner Michael Sussmann, and the campaign were later found involved in not just spreading the false claims from the Steele dossier but other false stories like the Alfa Bank conspiracy claim.

It was Elias who managed the legal budget for the campaign. We now know that the campaign hid the funding of the Steele dossier as a legal expense.

New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said that Elias denied involvement in the anti-Trump dossier. When Vogel tried to report the story, he said that Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”

Elias was also seated next to John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, when he was asked about the role of the campaign, he denied categorically any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS. Even assuming that Podesta was kept in the dark, the Durham Report clearly shows that Elias knew and played an active role in pushing this effort.

The Clinton campaign lied to the media, spread false claims of Russian disinformation, and was accused of being a conduit for Russian intelligence. So would the “better deterrence” have been for Clinton herself to be arrested?

Sussmann ultimately did stand trial but was acquitted. Notably, John Durham noted that “no one at Fusion GPS … would agree to voluntarily speak with the Office” while both the DNC and Clinton campaign invoked privileges to refuse to answer certain questions.

For a person who is on her fourth memoir, Clinton is remarkably hostile to free speech. Notably, in all of these memoirs, she does not address her prominent role in calling for the censorship and now arrest of those with opposing views. She also does not discuss how her campaign lied to the media and funded the Steele dossier. Perhaps that is coming in the fifth memoir.

What is clear is that Clinton herself has no fear that such prosecution would ever await her. She is one of those who may silence others but not be silenced. The public is to be protected from views that she deemed disinformation, misinformation, or malinformation.

To that end, as one of the guardians of truth, Clinton chastised the media for not being more consistently anti-Trump, a daunting prospect since the media has been accused of running almost 90 percent negative stories on Trump.

Nevertheless, shortly after the second assassination attack on Trump, Clinton called Trump a danger to the world and added that “I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for the press to have a consistent narrative about how dangerous Trump is.”

Ideally, between the arrests of those accused of disinformation and an effective state media, Clinton hopes to rein in errant thoughts and viewpoints.

In the interview, Maddow did not have even a slight objection to the implications of arresting people with criminal viewpoints. Censorship and criminal prosecutions are such mainstream concepts that they are as unsurprising as a fourth Clinton memoir.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: clinton; crookedhillary; firstamendment; freespeech; hillary; jonathanturley; misinformation; orwellian; r; thoughtcontrol; turley
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1 posted on 09/18/2024 7:08:16 PM PDT by george76
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To: george76

Has Ms Russia Russia turned herself in?


2 posted on 09/18/2024 7:10:33 PM PDT by TheThirdRuffian (Orange is the new brown)
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To: george76

OK. Your move....you liquor soggy bitch.


3 posted on 09/18/2024 7:10:45 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI. )
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To: george76

has she turned herself in yet?


4 posted on 09/18/2024 7:10:55 PM PDT by Bob434
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To: george76

Said the Queen of Disinformation.


5 posted on 09/18/2024 7:11:31 PM PDT by Salvavida
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To: george76

I can’t believe they’re saying this out loud!


6 posted on 09/18/2024 7:12:04 PM PDT by griswold3 ( Robespierre and Pol Pot were “unburdened by what has been” Harris the "Year Zero" candidate)
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To: george76

Fidel Castro would have been proud of his prize students comment here.


7 posted on 09/18/2024 7:12:08 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Have you seen Joe Biden's picture on a milk carton?)
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To: george76

Was her daughter Chelsea “joggin’ nearby”?


8 posted on 09/18/2024 7:12:47 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (If the DNC would spay and neuter their supporters we wouldn't need all these abortions.)
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To: george76

Might as well. They’ll go after soft targets, then most will turtle up and slink away. As I stated in my tagline since January 2021, you’re on your own, folks.


9 posted on 09/18/2024 7:12:59 PM PDT by CatOwner (Don't expect anyone, even conservatives, to have your back when the SHTF in 2021 and beyond.)
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To: george76

No, Hillary. Once again, you’re doing it wrong.


10 posted on 09/18/2024 7:13:57 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: griswold3

“I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for the press to have a consistent narrative about how dangerous Trump is.”

Positively Soviet.


11 posted on 09/18/2024 7:16:02 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: george76

She’s first.


12 posted on 09/18/2024 7:17:18 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Am Yisrael Chai ~)
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To: george76

Is she still blaming the child prostitution ring story for her loss ? What about all the lies she spread about Trump starting with Russiagate ?


13 posted on 09/18/2024 7:20:17 PM PDT by libh8er
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To: TheThirdRuffian

Hillary is a big cash raiser for the DNC anyone here doubt for a second that the party would hesitate in putting your ass in a DNC run American version of Dachau concentration camp !


14 posted on 09/18/2024 7:22:36 PM PDT by Nebr FAL owner (Treason is the reason for Democrat Sedition & subvertion )
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To: george76
This is why you weren’t up by 50 points.
15 posted on 09/18/2024 7:23:26 PM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: george76

She is also the one who, some years back, said that America needed a common set of values and the government should provide it. Government rarely does a good job in the things it is supposed to do, so imagine the hellish disaster that would be. Low-life authoritarian police-state scum.

I will be forever grateful to Donald Trump for crushing her dreams and ambitions and kicking her back to her gin in Chappequa.


16 posted on 09/18/2024 7:28:27 PM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (God save the United States!)
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To: george76

She should’ve been Ethel Rosenberg’d for Treason by now.


17 posted on 09/18/2024 7:29:04 PM PDT by simpson96
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To: Bob434

About every new anchor person would be arrested. About every elected official would be arrested.
WHATS NEXT, ARRESTED FOR WRONG EMOTIONS.
Will religious leaders have to prove the existence of a higher being - deity or risk being arrested.
All sports predictions that are wrong, the predictor would be arrested.


18 posted on 09/18/2024 7:30:11 PM PDT by midwest_hiker
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To: george76

In a just world Cankles would be just now getting an early release from federal prison because of a fatal disease.


19 posted on 09/18/2024 7:36:27 PM PDT by quantim (Victory is not relative, it is absolute. )
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To: george76

20 posted on 09/18/2024 7:37:47 PM PDT by TigersEye (Steve Bannon is a political prisoner. Free Steve Bannon!)
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