I keep having the same reaction to the Mueller/Barr Report. I feel trapped in an old comedic routine: “Who are you going to believe, me, or your lying eyes?”
We know that Russians interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign. We know that through the internet they conducted information warfare against the United States, and we know they did so to help Donald Trump.
We know that the Republican campaign embraced Russia’s help and championed stolen material to hurt their opponent, Hillary Clinton. However, we are told there was no conspiracy (collusion) between the Trump campaign and the Russians.
We know that George Papadopoulos met with a Russian agent who told him he had dirt on Hillary Clinton, and George lied about it. We know about Donald Trump Junior’s meeting with Russians in the Trump Tower where he expected to receive damaging information on Hilary Clinton.
We know the meeting included Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort. We know that Donald Trump Junior lied about the meeting, and we know that Donald Trump Senior made up a flimsy lie about the reason for the meeting.
We know there was a last-minute change to the Republican platform at the Republican Convention to take a pro-Russia stance on Ukraine.
We know that Michael Flynn asked the Russian ambassador to not get into a tit-for-tat fight with the U.S. over the sanctions the Obama administration had imposed on the Russians for their meddling in our election. And he lied about it.
We know that Paul Manafort provided polling data about the campaign to the Russian operative, Kilimnik, and lied about it.
We have seen and heard a lot of collaboration between Trump’s people and the Russians. We have seen substantial aiding and abetting. But what we saw is not what we thought we saw, as we are told there was no conspiracy.
But what about the lying?
These guys thought they were doing something wrong because they kept lying about their activities. In some instances, if they had known they were not breaking the law, perhaps they would not have lied and would not have to serve time in prison.
Strange.