Scrap of Evidence Causes Media Frenzy

The mainstream media has been pushing the Trump/ Russia collusion narratives for months, since the fall of 2016. But this entire time, there has not been a scarp of evidence supporting the narrative. But now, they think have found a scrap, and it is the most important thing in the world, at least the media seems to think so. But is any of this true?

The Scrap of Evidence

What is this scrap? In June of 2016, President Trump‘s son, Donald Trump Jr, met with Natalia Veselnitskaya, whom the media are calling “a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer.” Natalia claimed she had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, and Trump Jr, knowing full-well she was a Russian operative, met with her. That is treason! Collusion! String him up! Or is it?

Let’s step back from all of the hysteria and look at the facts. In June of 2016, Trump Jr received an email from Rob Goldstone. Trump Jr described him as “an acquaintance” during his interview with Sean Hannity on 7/11/17. Trump Jr knew Goldstone from Goldstone being an entertainment promotor for a musician at the 2013 Miss Universe pageant that Trump Sr was still head of at the time and which was held in Moscow. Goldstone also booked performers for a couple of other Trump events.

Goldstone emailed Trump Jr and told him he knew a woman who had possible “dirt” on Hillary. The email mentions the Russian government and its desire to see Trump elected, and that is what is causing the media frenzy. They are saying Trump Jr should have immediately contacted the authorities, the FBI, the CIA, somebody to report this obvious attempt to overthrow the US government.

Put that way, it does sound kind of ridiculous, doesn’t it? But that is what treason is, “the crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government” (Oxford Dictionary on Word 365). But “treason” is what the media and even Democratic Senators are claiming happened, such as Tim (thank God, he is not now VP) Kaine.

Let’s put this email into context. Trump Jr is a lifetime international businessman. It has been his normal practice throughout his entire life to meet with people from foreign countries and even with government officials from other countries. At the time of this email, he was a newbie in politics, only having just started to help his father in his presidential run a few months earlier. Moreover, this was long before the media had invented its Trump/ Russia conspiracy narrative. But it was when Trump Sr had just secured the nomination by going over the top of needed delegates. However, there was now talk of a contested convention. Thus that was the focus of the Trump campaign. Russia involvement in the US election was not even on the radar.

In addition, it is very normal for political candidates to receive emails, letters, and phone calls from people claiming to have dirt on their political opponents, and it is normal for the campaigns to follow up on such contacts. It is known as opposition research. If they can find dirt on their opponent, that will of course be a big help in the campaign, especially since the media will have a field day with it.

This is the background in which Trump Jr received this email. Add in not knowing Goldstone very well and only having a short email to go on, Trump Jr had no idea what this was all about. But as a businessman, he had learned to follow up on anything that might be profitable, to at least to check it out. He also considered it a courtesy to an acquaintance to hear him out.

Given all of this, no “warning whistles” as he put it went off in his mind due to the email. It was just someone offering something that might possibly help his father. But he also was not too concerned about following up on it, as in his email response, he told Goldstone he might have time to meet with him about it at the end of the summer.

As it turned out, they were able to arrange a meeting shortly thereafter. It involved Trump Jr, Goldstone, Natalia, along with Trump Jr's brother-in-law and Trump campaign adviser Jared Kushner, and then–campaign chairman Paul Manafort, plus a couple of translators.

However, the meeting was, in Trump Jr’s words, “a complete waste of time.” Natalia, as it turned out, was not in any way connected with the Russian government. She also did not have any dirt on Hillary, nor anything else of value whatsoever relevant to the election. All she wanted to talk about was something to do with USA/ Russian adoption policies.

Trump had never even heard of this issue, and it was not on the radar as far as his father’s priorities for issues to address in the election. As such, the meeting only lasted 20 minutes. During which time, Kushner left after just a few minutes, and Manafort was on his phone the whole time. Only Trump Jr was even paying attention to Natalia, and that as a courtesy to Goldstone.

When the meeting ended, Goldstone apologized to Trump Jr for the waste of time. And that was the end of that. There was no follow-up, as there was no reason for a follow-up as there was nothing there. Trump Jr never told his father about the meeting as there was no reason to do so, since again, it was a big “nothing-burger” (to quote Hillary’s claims about her email scandal). And it should be a big nothing-burger to the media, if they were not so intent on bringing down the Trump presidency.

Note also, if Trump Jr had contracted the FBI or some other authority when he received the first email without checking it out first, he would have sent the FBI on a wild-goose chase, wasting their time and tax-payer money. It would have been like filing a false report to the police.

But What If?

But what if Natalie had been a Russian operative? What if she had had valuable campaign information? Given Trump Jr’s initial response, he appeared willing to collude with Russia to affect the election. That would have been a criminal offense and treason. That is why this is still so important as to occupy almost the entirety of network and cable news broadcasts.

That is the media spin. But it is all a bunch of hooey. Yes, the initial email did mention the Russian government and that Natalia was involved with the it. But Trump Jr did not know for sure that was the case. All he knew was that someone he knew said he knew someone who had valuable information that would aid his father, so he checked it out.

Trump Jr says he would have reported it to the appropriate authorities if it had ended up being something shady. But we can only speculate if that would have been the case and what he would have done. And it would be just that, speculation, and no one in this country has ever been or should ever be tried and convicted over a speculation about something they might have done if something had been different. Moreover, even if all of this had been true and had happened, it still would not have constituted a crime. Trump Jr was a private citizen and had the First Amendment right to talk with however he wants about whatever he wants.

However, the media and Democrats are trying to extend campaign finance laws to cover this situation. It is illegal for a campaign to take donations from foreigners and foreign governments. The spin is that if Natalia had had damaging information on Hillary, that would have been a thing of value and thus would constitute a “donation” to the campaign. But that is a stretch to say the least that no judge would fall for. It would also criminalize private speech, which is a step that should not be taken.

The bottom line is no laws were broken nor would have been broken even if the situation had been what it had been purported to be, and Trump Jr had acted on it. However, this is not to change the tone and move from saying there was no collusion between Trump and Russian to saying that such collusion is not illegal, as Trump-hater Shepherd Smith of Fox News has said.

President Trump himself never even knew about the meeting, let alone acted on it. And since the meeting turned out to be a big nothing, no collusion occurred between anyone involved with the Trump campaign and Russia. Again, Natalia was not affiliated in any way with the Russian government, and she had no information that was relevant to the campaign, as she herself made clear in an NBC interview.

What all of this means is, the media is in a frenzy over something that did not happen and would have not been a crime even if it did. It is still true that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian. It is still true no laws were ever broken by the Trump campaign let alone by Trump himself. It is still true Trump has not done anything that in any way would be an impeachable offense, no matter what Democrats might say and do. And most of all, it is still true his whole Trump/ Russian collusion narrative is a gigantic hoax perpetrated by the media in cahoots with Democrats to oust Trump from office, or at the least, to keep him from enacting his agenda.

What the Media is Not Reporting

Health care reform, tax reform, regulatory reform, the economy, jobs, illegal immigration, military preparedness, problems at the Veterans Administration, terrorism, ISIS, relations with foreign countries, all of these policy issues and others, the Trump administration, working with the Republican Congress, is making great strides in improving. But the media is barely talking about any of it.

For instance, on its morning show on 7/13/17, CNN spent 2 hours and 16 minutes talking about Trump Jr and Russia, but only 8 minutes talking about health care, 2 minutes talking about tax reform, and 0 minutes talking about any of the other of the above. The impression they are trying to give the viewer is that Trump is so wrapped up in dealing with Russia that he is not accomplishing anything else, but that is not even close to the truth. Much has been happening on a positive note in the White House.

Moreover, President Trump has now made three foreign trips and has been greeted warmly on all of them. He was especially well-received in Saudi Arabia and Poland, with his name being chanted in the latter. He has given several great speeches in these counties, while holding important and successful meetings with the heads of foreign governments.

But all of this activity has barely been reported about in the mainstream media. This gives the average viewer the impression that President Trump has not accomplished anything while in office, when nothing could be further from the truth.

The media is also completely ignoring the true stories of the DNC colluding with the Ukrainian government to affect the 2016 election, of the Clintons getting kickbacks from the Russian government for the Uranium One deal, of former FBI director’s James Comey potential legal troubles for leaking classified information to the press, and of the other 125 illegal leaks of classified information that occurred during the first 126 days of the Trump presidency. All of these are real stories with real crimes having been committed that the reader probably has never heard about, as the media is simply ignoring them.

Of course, there is also much else going on in the USA that has nothing to do with politics that the mainstream media is also not reporting about. But the mainstream media is so focused on its fake Trump/ Russian collusion hoax and is so controlled by its hatred for Trump, that they seem to think the rest of America is as concerned about this bogus narrative as they are. But that only shows how very much out of touch the media is with the American people. The vast majority of Americans couldn’t care less about any of this. They are concerned about matters that affect their own lives, like the above listed policy issues that are seeing improvement under the Trump administration.

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The above article was posted on this website July 14, 2017.

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