The Establishment Attack on Trump

How the political establishment launched their frontal assault on Trump’s new administration

After the second assassination attempt of President Trump we’ve been witness to an immediate redoubling of verbal attacks from the Left. Any pretense of a pullback or softening of the dangerous rhetoric that’s encouraged violence against Trump is simply gone. The Left and the larger Establishment are terrified that Trump is going to win - and they’re willing to do anything to stop him. With our current politically toxic environment as a backdrop, we thought it might be worth revisiting the whirlwind of events that transpired in the final days of the Obama administration as they prepared for the unthinkable. A Trump Administration.

The Intelligence Community, the Obama administration and the political establishment never expected Trump to win in 2016. And when he did win, Obama and the intelligence community were suddenly faced with a very real problem. How do they properly cover up their actions leading up to the election? For his part, Obama had to be deeply concerned that Trump would quickly find out exactly what vice-president Joe Biden had been up to in Ukraine - and immediately become aware that Joe was acting with the tacit approval of Obama in the process. The new Trump administration needed to be deeply wounded, hopefully fatally so. Attacked from all sides and placed on the defensive before it even began.

As it turns out, the timeline of actions by Obama and the intelligence community in January of 2017 tells that story. One of an establishment response to the very real threat that the young Trump administration presented to the corrupt, political structure of our nation. The attacks were coordinated and they were ferocious. It’s easy to forget from this vantage point, but in the first six months of the Trump administration there was a very real question if Trump would survive his first year. Trump had famously claimed that was going to “drain the swamp” but unfortunately for him the swamp was actually an ocean.

Let’s begin on January 5, 2017, fifteen days before Trump’s inauguration. Following a briefing by Intelligence Community leadership on “Russian hacking during the 2016 Presidential election, President Obama had a brief follow-on conversation with FBI Director Jim Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in the Oval Office.”  Then-Vice President Joe Biden and Susan Rice were also present. “That meeting reportedly included a discussion of the Steele dossier and the FBI’s investigation of its claims”. According to an email written by Susan Rice, Obama cryptically asked Comey “to inform him if anything changes in the next few weeks that should affect how we share classified information with the incoming team.” Obama was really expressing his concern over the forced sharing of classified information with the incoming Trump team.

On January 10, 2017 FBI Director James Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that the DNC had refused access to their servers. Comey claimed that the FBI made “multiple requests”, but ultimately struck an agreement with the DNC that a private company, Crowdstrike, would get access and share what it found with investigators. What Comey was really doing was effectively telling Congress that the information from the DNC servers was now walled off from oversight.

During this same hearing, Comey was publicly asked by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden if the FBI had investigated relationships between associates of Trump and the Russian government. Comey strategically told the Committee that he could not comment in public on a possible investigation into allegations of links between Russia and the Trump campaign, publicly stating that “I would never comment on investigations – whether we have one or not – in an open forum like this, so I really can’t answer one way or another.” 

Comey’s calculated refusal to neither confirm or deny an active FBI investigation triggered a media onslaught of Russia-Collusion claims. Particularly as this Senate hearing had been organized to specifically look into the US intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia intervened in the election to benefit Trump.

In a matter of no small coincidence it was on this very same day that the Steele Dossier was publicly released by Buzzfeed and reported on by CNN.

Concerned by the sudden flood of leaks from the intelligence community, Trump conducted his first sting of sorts the following day, on January 11, 2017. In order to identify the people leaking classified information to the press, Trump didn’t tell his staff that the Intelligence Community was about to brief him. After that briefing, news from the meeting was leaked to the press leading Trump to conclude the leaks were coming from the Intelligence Community. As Trump said, “I have many meetings with intelligence. And every time I meet, people are reading about it.”

Trump’s efforts must have worked because later that same day, Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper was forced to put out a formal statement decrying the leaks from the intelligence community, saying that “I expressed my profound dismay at the leaks that have been appearing in the press, and we both agreed that they are extremely corrosive and damaging to our national security.” 

But in his statement, Clapper also specifically referenced the Steele Dossier, stating that he and President Trump also “discussed the private security company document, which was widely circulated in recent months among the media, members of Congress and Congressional staff even before the IC became aware of it.” Clapper said that he “emphasized that this document is not a U.S. Intelligence Community product” and that he did not believe the leaks came from within the intelligence community.”

Clapper stated that the Intelligence Community “has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable, and we did not rely upon it in any way for our conclusions.” Clapper also claimed that “part of our obligation is to ensure that policymakers are provided with the fullest possible picture of any matters that might affect national security. 

A House Intelligence report later found that when Clapper was initially asked about leaks related to the Intelligence Community Assessment in July 2017, Clapper flatly denied discussing the Steele dossier or any other intelligence related to Russia hacking of the 2016 election with journalists. But under subsequent questioning, Clapper suddenly acknowledged discussing the “dossier with CNN journalist Jake Tapper,” and admitted that he might have spoken with other journalists about the same topic.

The very next day, on January 12th, Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General of the DOJ, announced his initiation of a review of actions taken by the FBI in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. This announcement was not publicized and it only became public knowledge almost a year later - in December 2017, when a New York Times article on the removal of Peter Strzok from Robert Mueller’s inquiry disclosed Horowitz’s investigation. The Times noted that Horowitz was leading a “broad examination of how the F.B.I. handled the Clinton email investigation.” The article also noted that “Horowitz declined to characterize his findings but said that he hoped to have a copy of his report released by March or April” of 2018.

At the time, the news of Horowitz’s investigation was received with a large degree of optimism, but with hindsight, one can see that what Horowitz’s investigation really did was effectively tie up any outside investigations into the FBI for almost three full years. Also of note is the fact that the IG’s investigation was virtually all-encompassing, he was “looking” at everything. Which also meant that almost everything the FBI and the Intelligence Community had done was now tied up under the umbrella of Horowitz’s supposed investigation - shielded from Congressional investigators. Horowitz’s report was delayed a number of times and would not be released until December 2019.

Horowitz would later call Trump’s presidency “a challenging time … particularly in the last year” during a Feb. 10, 2021 online discussion hosted by Harvard Law School and moderated by Jack Goldsmith and Bob Woodward. At one point during the discussion, Goldsmith noted that the Trump administration represented a “most extraordinary and unprecedented assault” on our norms and our institutions. Goldsmith then asked Horowitz, “what happens when a president is elected precisely to break norms.” Horowitz responded, saying, “I agree with Bob and I agree with you. That was what happened here, it was norm-breaking.” Horowitz continued, stating that “norms didn’t matter.” He told Goldsmith that “it was certainly a challenging time” for the IG community.”

But several other crucial events also transpired on January 12th - the most important being the first renewal of the Carter Page FISA. January 12th also marked the date that the Clinton Global Initiative announced that it would close on April 15, 2017 as donations continued to dry up as the Clintons no longer held true political power. It was also on this very same day that Washington Post reporter  David Ignatius cited government “sources” regarding Michael Flynn’s calls with Russia's Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. 

Although Flynn would later be found to have engaged in nothing improper during his calls, Flynn would resign soon after, on February 13th. The same day that Flynn resigned, the Senate Intelligence Committee opened what would prove to be a fatally flawed and politically driven investigation into Russia and U.S. political campaign officials.

On January 24th and 25th of 2017, Steele’s supposed source for his dossier, Igor  Danchenko, was interviewed by the FBI. Given Danchenko’s admission that he knew nothing, the FBI understood immediately that the dossier’s major allegations were fabrications. Yet, instead of shutting down their investigation and withdrawing their FISA warrant on Trump 2016 presidential campaign adviser Carter Page - a warrant that had been obtained on the basis of the dossier - the FBI forged on and even escalated their investigation.

The FBI also made Danchenko a Confidential Human Source - or CHS - thereby shielding him from congressional investigations. With his new-found status as a confidential human source, Danchenko’s name and the entirety of his connections to the FBI were now fully shielded and redactable. Additionally, by paying Danchenko nearly $500,000, the FBI found a second avenue of ensuring his silence. 

Put simply, by Jan. 25, 2017, the FBI knew beyond any doubt that the dossier’s allegations were complete fabrications. But instead of shutting down their investigation, the FBI increased their attacks on Trump and his young administration. 

Two days later, on January 27th, during a private dinner meeting, President Trump asked FBI Director Comey if he was under investigation. Comey told him privately that he was not - but Comey refused to state this publicly. During this same dinner meeting, Trump also told Comey that he was thinking of ordering the FBI to investigate the dossier. Comey somehow managed to talk Trump out of doing so. 

This was a major mistake by Trump. On March 20, 2017, Comey testified to Congress in an open hearing. During his televised testimony, Comey confirmed that the FBI was investigating whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia during the election. The Russia-Collusion narrative was now firmly established.

It is absolutely certain that the same kind of scheming to undermine a future Trump administration is occurring right now, and it is happening with far more advance warning and even greater fervor than what transpired in early 2017.