Posted on 03/25/2019 7:00:51 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
With the conclusions of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe now known to a significant degree, it seems apologies are in order.
However, judging by the recent past, apologies are not likely forthcoming from the responsible parties.
In this context, it matters not whether one is a supporter or a critic of President Trump.
Whatever his supposed flaws, the rampant accusations and speculation that shrouded Trump’s presidency, even before it began, ultimately have proven unfounded. Just as Trump said all along.
Yet, each time President Trump said so, some of us in the media lampooned him. We treated any words he spoke in his own defense as if they were automatically to be disbelieved because he had uttered them. Some even declared his words to be “lies,” although they had no evidence to back up their claims.
We in the media allowed unproven charges and false accusations to dominate the news landscape for more than two years, in a way that was wildly unbalanced and disproportionate to the evidence.
We did a poor job of tracking down leaks of false information. We failed to reasonably weigh the motives of anonymous sources and those claiming to have secret, special evidence of Trump’s “treason.”
As such, we reported a tremendous amount of false information, always to Trump’s detriment.
And when we corrected our mistakes, we often doubled down more than we apologized. We may have been technically wrong on that tiny point, we would acknowledge. But, in the same breath, we would insist that Trump was so obviously guilty of being Russian President Vladimir Putin’s puppet that the technical details hardly mattered.
So, a round of apologies seem in order.
Apologies to President Trump on behalf of those in the U.S. intelligence community, including the Department of Justice and the FBI, which allowed the weaponization of sensitive, intrusive intelligence tools against innocent citizens such as Carter Page, an adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign.
Apologies also to Page himself, to Jerome Corsi, Donald Trump, Jr., and other citizens whose rights were violated or who were unfairly caught up in surveillance or the heated pursuit of charges based on little more than false, unproven opposition research paid for by Democrats and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Apologies for the stress on their jobs and to their families, the damage to their reputations, the money they had to spend to hire legal representation and defend themselves from charges for crimes they did not commit.
Apologies on behalf of those in the intelligence community who leaked true information out of context to make Trump look guilty, and who sometimes leaked false information to try to implicate or frame him.
Apologies from those in the chain of command at the FBI and the Department of Justice who were supposed to make sure all information presented to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) is verified but did not do so.
Apologies from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court judges who are supposed to serve as one of the few checks and balances to prevent the FBI from wiretapping innocent Americans. Whether because of blind trust in the FBI, or out of ignorance or even malfeasance, they failed at this important job.
Apologies to the American people who did not receive the full attention of their government while political points were being scored; who were not told about some important world events because they were crowded out of the news by the persistent insistence that Trump was working for Russia.
Apologies all the way around.
And now, with those apologies handled — are more than apologies due?
Should we try to learn more about those supposed Russian sources who provided false “intel” contained in the “dossier” against Trump, Page and others? Should we learn how these sources came to the attention of ex-British spy Christopher Steele, who built the dossier and claimed that some of the sources were close to Putin?
When and where did Steele meet with these high-level Russian sources who provided the apparently false information?
Are these the people who actually took proven, concrete steps to interfere in the 2016 election and sabotage Trump’s presidency, beginning in its earliest days?
Just who conspired to put the “dossier” into the hands of the FBI? Who, within our intel community, dropped the ball on verifying the information and, instead, leaked it to the press and presented it to the FISA Court as if legitimate? Will anyone be held accountable?
Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) is an Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist, author of The New York Times best-sellers “The Smear” and “Stonewalled,” and host of Sinclair’s Sunday TV program, “Full Measure.”
The focus from this moment on should be WHO started these rumors about Russian collusion.
WHO are the individuals and groups who pushed this narrative?
The narrative has proven to be false so who created this false narrative?
Woman, try digging up and poking a dead songbird. HE is a major source of all this mess.
This should be easy considering we have always known exaactly who they are!
Hold on to your pen, Sharyl, there’s more coming.
“If you set out to kill the king, you had best make sure you kill the king.” Emerson............
Yellow bird up high in banana tree.
He was one for sure he had 100’s maybe 1000’s of co-conspirators. A full court press needs to be initiated NOW.
We shall find out if Bill Barr is up to that task in short order.
Just who conspired to put the “dossier” into the hands of the FBI?
Uh, one of them is a dead American ‘hero’ who can’t be criticized...
It would be nice to get someone to confess exactly how much songbird had to do with this. It would be good for the “saint” image to meet the truth.
Where’s his chubby spokesperson?
How could any sane human think Donald Trump was a Putin sock puppet? How utterly ridiculous!!! Those on the left are insane and delusional - they actually believed ( or wanted to believe) the deep state lies.
Folks, cancel your cable subscriptions. Get a good antenna and stream your content.
You PAID FOR ALL OF THIS MEDIA WHORING, EVERYWHERE.
One point I didn’t notice . . . does this mean Michael Flynn’s indictment gets dropped?
Exactly. Trump loves America. Always has.
“Apologies from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court judges”
Didn’t see criticism of them but I’ve always thought they played dumb.
Wasn’t Flynn more than indicted. I thought he was awaiting sentencing.
Attiksson is, of course right, as far as she goes. What’s needed, in addition, is reparations. And not just recovery for lost income and expenses, but also compensatory damages. The compensatory damages need to be so high, that no Deep State bureaucrat will ever try this again.
1. Sharyl Atkisson apologizing for actions of others is plain weird.
2. I’m sorry I ruined your life. Friends again? Point being, apology is not enough. Massive damage has been wrought by false accusation amplified by duplicitous press. That damage will never be corrected, but the people who perpetrated it should suffer credibility, financial and/or liberty consequences. This sort of “false accusation” conduct must be punished to deter the use of false accusation becoming a routine tool.
We look for remorse from the convicted criminal. Same is due in this case, even if the false accusation isn’t technically criminal conduct.
Apologies for the stress on their jobs and to their families, the damage to their reputations, the money they had to spend to hire legal representation and defend themselves from charges for crimes they did not commit.
****************
The plot wasn’t only against Trump. It was also intended to send a message to any FUTURE outsider candidates that their opposition to the Deep State will be relentlessly harassed, and anyone associated in any way with said candidate will be persecuted unmercifully.
Make no mistake, this was a two pronged plot against Trump and anyone associated with him. The Deep State was sending a very intimidating message to all of its would be opponents. It signaled that it would use all agencies and resouces at its disposal to target its enemies.
And that is why these kinds of tactics must be punished. Otherwise, this will all happen again. And next time we may not be so lucky.
We deserve to know WHY. From a foreign national this should have been a HUGE red flag. So was this a US plot or an international plot, and why this enormous elaborate scheme?
And what next from these “ desperate” people? Do people with this much power go gently into the night?
Bt definition, psychopaths are unable to express remorse.
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