Former Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) threw in his two cents about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Frist calls on Senate Republicans to protect Mueller’s investigation from ongoing attacks by 72-year-old President Donald Trump and his friends in the right wing media. Frist’s op-ed appeared in the anti-Trump Washington Post, desperate to report anything negative about Trump. Frist mentions nothing in his piece about the growing body of evidence proving egregious bias against Trump at the FBI and Justice Department but, more importantly, the very real possibility that former President Barack Obama ordered the FBI, Justice Department and National Security Agency to dig up dirt on Trump to help former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton get elected. More evidence daily points in that direction.
Frist shows he’s either clueless or has joined the anti-Trump chorus led by the nation’s mainstream broadcast and print outlets. “It is with some trepidation that I offer thoughts on how the good people still serving in the Senate should address a current crisis, but staying silent is no longer an option,” referring to Trump’s push back against the 15-moth old Special Counsel probe into alleged Russian meddling or Trump collusion with the Kremlin in the 2016 election. While Frist states he doesn’t believe that Trump colluded with Moscow, he also thinks Mueller’s an honorable guy, deserving a chance to investigate Russian meddling. Frist forgets that Mueller’s probe into meddling has morphed almost exclusively into proving that Trump colluded with the Kremlin to win the 2016 election. All that can really be stated is that Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t want Hillary to win.
Whether or not Putin had a vendetta with Hillary should come as no surprise, since, when she was Secretary of State, she called Putin’s 2013 election rigged, encouraging street protests in Moscow. If Putin made an effort to retaliate against Hillary, that’s hardly something you’d call Russian meddling, other than a foreign leader committing himself to see her defeated. Whatever damning Wikileaks evidence hit the airwaves before the 2016 election, it probably came from Russian hackers but was most likely not an organized Kremlin plot. Foreign leaders have political preferences like anyone else, writing, speaking and spreading gossip to advance their agenda. There’s no question that there’s no love lost between Putin and Hillary but to leap to the conclusion about Russian meddling, or, worse yet, Trump collusion, shows how far Democrats and press have stretched the evidence
Frist thinks Mueller is under attack by the White House and media friendly press like Fox News. “Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III is under assault, and that is wrong. No matter who is in the White House, we Republicans must stand up for the sanctity of our democracy and the rule of law,” said Frist. Frist ignores completely the egregious violations of the Constitution committed by Obama’s FBI, Justice Department and National Security Agency. If those three bodies were used to help Hillary win the election that was more than dirty tricks: That was an unconstitutional abuse of the FBI, DOJ and NSA. Frist acts like he doesn’t know what happened in the 2016 campaign when Obama’s FBI, DOJ and NSA decided under a phony “probable cause” to use the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] Court to seek warrants to wiretap Trump campaign officials.
Mueller’s perfectly capable of withstanding any criticism from the Trump White House or any media source. Frist’s suggestion that Mueller can’t defend himself or his investigation is preposterous. When you consider abuses at the FBI, including high profile abuses by former FBI agent Peter Strzok and his attorney mistress Lisa Page, the fact that they once worked for Mullers’ team is outrageous. Mueller did nothing with Strzok and Page other than dismiss them from the Special Counsel probe. Strzok led the Hillary email investigation, acquitting her July 5, 2916 only two weeks before the Democratic National Convention. Strzok knew that Hillary destroyed evidence on the private server and smashed cell phones, meeting DOJ criteria for obstruction of justice. Yet somehow Strzok acquitted Hillary, preferring to keep the investigation focused on the Trump campaign.
Frist calls on Republicans in Congress to protect Mueller when it’s entirely unnecessary. Mueller can defend himself by presenting the grand jury and public with compelling evidence proving that crimes were committed. Going after Trump’s former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort and his partner Rick Gates for conspiracy, money laundering and bank fraud for consulting work in the Ukraine 10 years before the campaign shows how far he’s deviated from Russian meddling or Trump collusion Mueller doesn’t need Congressional protection: He needs to collect his evidence, evaluate it, charge people with crimes or not or close the investigation. Frist wants to ignore the shenanigans at Obama’s DOJ, FBI and NSA, including using Hillary’s paid opposition research as “probable cause” to go after Trump’s campaign to help Hillary get elected.
