How Russiagate Was Used to Justify FBI Election Interference

Who was the archvillain of Russiagate? It’s an important question, considering the cocksure certainty of the national-security establishment that Russia is a mortal threat to our democratic process, and the fact that that certainty has been used as justification for thrusting the FBI into our electoral politics as a monitor of what is supposed to be our free press and robust political speech.

Ask any Democrat or the FBI — you might even be able to ask both at the same time, since they seem to collaborate quite a bit — and Donald Trump will be the answer. In fact, Adam Schiff, for the moment the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is still howling at the moon about collusion. And as for the FBI? Well, it never had a Trump–Russia-collusion case, but that didn’t stop it from swearing to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that it had one — not once but four times.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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Who was the archvillain of Russiagate? It’s an important question, considering the cocksure certainty of the national-security establishment that Russia is a mortal threat to our democratic process, and the fact that that certainty has been used as justification for thrusting the FBI into our electoral politics as a monitor of what is supposed to be our free press and robust political speech.

Ask any Democrat or the FBI — you might even be able to ask both at the same time, since they seem to collaborate quite a bit — and Donald Trump will be the answer. In fact, Adam Schiff, for the moment the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is still howling at the moon about collusion. And as for the FBI? Well, it never had a Trump–Russia-collusion case, but that didn’t stop it from swearing to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that it had one — not once but four times.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.