Below is my column in Fox.com on the release of the last declassified material on the origins of the Russian collusion investigation. After the release, former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper wrote in the New York Times insisted that they never relied on the Steele dossier. The column only reaffirmed the level of dishonesty and duplicity that marked their tenures in office. (The Times still printed this claim despite being demonstrably untrue).
The documents quote Brennan in overruling career analysts and intervening to include the dossier in the intelligence assessment. Moreover, the column echoes the media spin that the investigation was about an attempted Russian interference while dismissing the collusion claim that consumed much of the first term. (Even after leaving office, Brennan continued to push the false collusion claim). Both countries routinely hacked each other’s emails — that is why we have the most recent incriminating evidence on the Clinton campaign’s funding and spreading the false collusion claims. We hacked their emails. We have also regularly tried to influence the elections of other nations. The key to the dossier and the Russian investigation was the allegation of collusion and the central role of the Clinton campaign in creating the narrative that Trump was a Russian asset.
Here is the column:
This week, Washington was rocked by new releases in the declassification of material related to the origins of the Russian investigation. The material shows further evidence of a secret plan by the Clinton campaign to use the FBI and media to spread a false claim that Donald Trump was a Russian asset. With this material, the public is finally seeing how officials and reporters set into motion what may be the greatest hoax ever perpetrated in American politics. There never was a Russian collusion conspiracy. This is the emerging story of the real Russian conspiracy to manufacture a false narrative that succeeded in devouring much of the first term of the Trump Administration.
What is emerging in these documents is a political illusion carefully constructed by government officials and a willing media. The brilliance of the trick was getting reporters to buy into the illusion; to own it like members of an audience called to the stage by an illusionist.
The effort closely followed the three steps of the classic magic trick: The Pledge, The Turn, and The Prestige.
The Pledge
The trick began with the pledge, the stage where the public is set up by showing ordinary events with the suggestion that it is about to transform into something extraordinary. The key is to make something seem real that is actually not.
The Clinton campaign delivered the pledge by secretly funding the Steele dossier, using Fusion GPS and a former British spy named Christopher Steele, to create a salacious account of Trump being an agent of Russia. New emails state that Hillary Clinton personally approved the operation.
It was Elias who was the general counsel to the Clinton presidential campaign when it funded the infamous Steele dossier and pushed the false Alfa Bank conspiracy. (His fellow Perkins Coie partner, Michael Sussmann, was indicted but acquitted in a criminal trial.)
During the campaign, a few reporters asked about the possible connection to the campaign, but Clinton campaign officials denied any involvement in the Steele Dossier. After the election, journalists discovered that the payments for the Steele dossier were hidden as “legal fees” among the $5.6 million paid to Perkins Coie under Elias.
When New York Times reporter Ken Vogel tried to report the story, he said, Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”
Later, John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, appeared before Congress for questioning on the Steele dossier. Podesta emphatically denied any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS. Sitting beside him was Elias, who reportedly said nothing to correct the misleading information given to Congress.
The FEC ultimately sanctioned the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee over the handling of the funding of the dossier through his prior firm.
The Turn
The next step is the turning point when the ordinary becomes something extraordinary. This required the involvement of the government. The Clinton team worked behind the scenes to feed the dossier to the FBI. It would be the criminal investigation that would transform the ordinary accounts, like Carter Page speaking in Moscow, into an elaborate Russian plot. Even though the FBI was warned early on that Page was a CIA asset, not a Russian asset, the Clinton team found eager officials in the Obama Administration to assist in the illusion.
The newly disclosed evidence shows how the turn was made. In July 2016, Brennan briefed former President Obama on Hillary Clinton’s “plan” to tie then-candidate Trump to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.” The original Russia investigation — funded by Clinton’s campaign — was launched days after this briefing.
Months later, it would be Brennan who overruled his own CIA analysts in his ordering of a second last-minute assessment at the end of the Obama Administration in support of the Russian allegations. It would help make the turn with the all-consuming Russian investigation that would follow.
Career analysts were not buying the turn. They objected that the reliance on the Steele dossier “ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment.” One CIA analyst told investigators that “[Brennan] refused to remove it, and when confronted with the dossier’s main flaws, [Brennan] responded, ‘Yes, but doesn’t it ring true?’”
That is the key to the turn; it needs only to be enough to fool the audience.
The Prestige
The final stage is called the Prestige, where the magician faces the toughest part of the trick. As explained in the 2006 movie “The Prestige,” the viewer is “looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled.” However, “making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back.”
The difference is that this trick was designed to derail Trump and it worked. In the end, however, the Special Counsel and Inspector General both rejected the Russian collusion claims. The public then reelected Trump. Now, the prestige may be revealed by the CIA.
Reports indicate that the CIA is about to declassify material showing that foreign sources were also in on the trick. The information reportedly indicates that foreign sources were aware of the move to create a Russian collusion scandal and expected that the FBI would play a role in the plan. That was before the bureau launched its controversial Crossfire Hurricane probe. One source said the foreign intelligence predicted the move “with alarming specificity.”
The most recently declassified material shows that the Russian actors in 2016 hacked emails from the Open Society Foundations, formerly known as the Soros Foundation. The emails reveal a broader network of activists and allies who were aware of the Clinton conspiracy.
Leonard Bernardo, who was the regional director for Eurasia at the Open Society Foundations, explained that “during the first stage of the campaign, due to lack of direct evidence, it was decided to disseminate the necessary information through the FBI-affiliated…from where the information would then be disseminated through leading U.S. publications.”
Bernardo added, “Julie (Clinton Campaign Advisor) says it will be a long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump. Now it is good for a post-convention bounce. Later, the FBI will put more oil into the fire.”
The media (including the Washington Post and New York Times, which won Pulitzer prizes for reporting on the debunked claims) are apoplectic in dismissing these disclosures. The last thing they will do is report on how they helped sell a political hoax. The problem is that they never said it was a trick. They said it was the truth. That is why they cannot honestly cover the story. To do so would not be coverage, it would be a confession.
It appears that everyone was in on the trick: the U.S. government, the media, even foreign governments. The only chumps were the American people. Now they are about to see how it was done.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
“analysis of the data found Trump delivered the worst three months of job growth since the pandemic.”
Hey, at least he loves little girls.
Sorry, aren’t you thinking about Biden? He’s the only one documented to make little children uncomfortable with his incessant sniffing and whispering. Who knows what else he does when there are no cameras around.
Oh, no! Not the Beatles too!
Well, She Was Just Seventeen, Uh, You Know What I Mean!
Political trick, Mr. Turley? C’mon. This was a coup; a treasonous conspiracy.
Look at that everyone, after four years of absolutely wrecking the American economy, and our trolls are suddenly up in arms about one sub-stellar job report. Buck up you losers, it’s going to take a while to clean up the total freaking mess that your failed administration left behind.
Only idiots believed their trick.
Since Reagan we have been run by thieves. Trump has his work way more than cutout hope he can get rid of all the lifers in all departments. All no goof to let this trick go on.
They have had help, enough blame for all!
Luke Fletcher = Obama, Hillary, and the rest of the Democrat party
(they want to destroy civilization to accomplish their own objectives)
Stark Wilson = Brennan and the rest of the deep state cabal
(the gunslinger enforcer for Fletcher)
Chris = Bill Maher, John Fetterman, and the like
(originally works for Fletcher, but is conflicted after after seeing the truth, and represents the possibility of redemption)
Starrett family = the American people
(building a civilization to support life and peace)
Shane = Donald J. Trump
(he brings a kind of violence that destroys the antagonist and makes civilization possible)
Here’s Shane, bringing down both Fletcher and Wilson. What I want to know is, how did they get the dog to stand up and walk out at just that moment?
Based on the government we’ve constructed with the great gifts of individual liberty and freedom of thought, the Founders might just as well gifted chimpanzees with slide rules.
Yep
Looks like the troll paychecks must have finally cleared.
Without the USAID back door funding the trolls have been quieted alot.
Interesting July jobs report today.
Only 73,000 new jobs.
55,400 of those jobs were in the health sector.
Why so many jobs in the health sector ????
July 1 is the start date for new interns and residents who have just graduated from medical school, and new fellows who continue their training beyond residency.
According to the National Matching Program, 55,384 new trainees started on July 1.
This accounts for all the new jobs in the health sector, leaving only 17,616 new jobs created in the real economy.
The actual number of new jobs was only 17,616.
Let that sink in, MAGA morons.
Still better than the reign of the disastrous Biden.
Do let us know when we get back to 9+% inflation, that’s the real mark of a strong economy.
We’re not particularly concerned. Every jobs report under the Biden mistake was revised downward over time, while under Trump the reports get revised up. It’s such an obvious signal that only a moron like yourself could ignore it.
Actually, the report revised the numbers for May and June DOWN by 285,000 under Trump.
None of the reports have been revised up under Trump.
Just wait. And let me know when the wonderful Biden economy finally arrives. Tick tock loser.
Read the rest of the report. The drop was what? More non Americans leaving the market/country
Since Trump took over, foreign-born workers have declined 5 out of 6 months, while native-born have increase 5 out of 6 months.
During the Biden admin, the US had not added a single native-born worker, and instead all the growth in the US labor force was foreign-born.
Let that sink in.
And the foreign-born were probably illegals, to boot. What an absolute train wreck the Biden years were.
NotReallyaFarmer
So all those foreign immigrants were actually working ???
Those foreign immigrants had jobs you say ????
Those foreign immigrants were paying taxes and contributing to the economy ????
REALLY???
I thought all those foreign immigrants were just criminals living off their crime, drug dealers selling drugs, or living off welfare and government handouts.
Now you tell us that all those foreign immigrants were actually working !!!!
Make up your mind.
Which is it.
Hahhahahaa, you made a funny with his screen name!! You so brilliant!!
Nobody owes you anything you loser. Take a hike.
No one said “…all….”
That’s you with your hyperbolic nonsensical argument.
My middle school kids could put together a better debate tactic.
the left proof is always ANONYMOUS! If you cannot put your name on it STFU.
Trump just fired the briben political hack doctoring those numbers. Whose the moron now chump.
Biden jobs checker fabricated the numbers, and now she has been fired. Consider that, moron.
Sorry loser, you must be a bit perturbed….. so sad.
MAGA is destroying the Democratic party.
Dimwit !!!
The fact that there are so many unfilled jobs is the PROBLEM.
There are a lot of unfilled jobs because employers see the economy and their businesses collapsing because of Trump’s tariffs. They are not willing to take on new employees.
There are many unfilled jobs, but last month only 73,000 were filled.
THAT is the point.
Jobs are not being filled.
Hahahahaha you’re “logic” is simply unassailable. Please keep it coming, you’re absolutely hilarious.
Those “jobs” numbers have been artificially inflated, then revised back downward during Biden’s entire occupancy of the Whitehouse. It’s been grossly exaggerated since the first quarter of 2021. It’s akin to Biden’s fabricated “low” inflation numbers, even though inflation ran rampant throughout his 4 years of squatting in Washington D.C.
Firsrt of all, MAGA media, of which Turley has chosen to associate himself, does not speak for “the public”–MAGA is a distinct minority in America, but they keep pushing the “us vs. them” (meaning Democrats) theme. Secondly, even those deep into MAGAsphere know a diversionary tactic when they see one–this one is not just to divert attention away from the likelihood of a Maxwell commutation or pardon as a quid pro quo for ginning up some lie that benefits Trump, but also the negative economic news, unemployment is ticking up, the stock market opened in a decline, Trump TACOing once again and the growing danger to Republicans of losing Congress in the next election. It’s not working. None of this crap from 10 years ago is news or even newsworthy, and none of the negative stuff is true. Trump always grandstands to divert the narrative away from negative things about him, but this time, it’s not working.
GIGI GIGI GIGI nobody cares about your latest hysterical screed. Hit the road.
You can’t erase the evidence no matter how you spin it
You mean wipe it like a cloth…it worked for Hitlery’s illegal server….
WTF. You are the problem. Ends justify the means.
Hahahahahaha “Firsrt” learn to spell, you tool. Literally the FIRST word you typed was stupid, just like the rest of you.
Independent media is growing while MSM is sinking. Their ratings prove it. I just re-newed my subscription to The Free Press.
When something actually comes out about the whole Epstein thing, than I might care. Until then, it is a distraction from the Clinton/Obama/Brenner/Comey/Clapper scandal. And that is the biggest scandal of the century. A close second is the Biden scandal. This is newsworthy. It is real. And it is working.
Unempolyment reminded unchanged.
The stock market hit a record high the other day.
Trump just secured a trade deal with South Korea and with the EU.
The Epstein thing is a component of the larger investigation. It all will come out. We have Patriots in charge now.
First…it’s not nonsense. It’s sedition.
Second, even though it’s ten years ago, it’s still punishable because it was part of a conspiracy.
Third, ALL AMERICANS want free and fair elections.
Enough said…..
Your talking points are so pathetic. TACO?? Really? What are you, twelve years old?
Hey Gig,i I’m trying to reach your Iranian mullah terrorist buddies on the phone, I was hoping to ask them about your TACO talking point, but there seems to be a problem on their end. I’ll try the Fordow number next, that always answers.
There is no way for any corporate media outlet to cover this story at all. Logistically, it can’t be done without making major admissions.
It will have to be reported out entirely by independents. https://t.co/nIuk5WW0S1
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) July 31, 2025
Go independents!!!
Try to get a better grip on reality!
“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
– Barack Obama
____________________
“We will stop him.”
– Peter Strzok to FBI paramour Lisa Page
_____________________________________________
“[Obama] wants to know everything we’re doing.”
– Lisa Page to FBI paramour Peter Strzok
_____________________________________________
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before 40.”
– Peter Strzok to FBI parmour Lisa Page
____________________________________________
“People on the 7th floor to include Director are fired up about this [Trump] server.”
– Bill Priestap
________________
“I had a discussion with the case team and we believe there to be predication to include former President of the United States Donald J. Trump as a predicated subject.”
– Timothy Thibault to John Crabb, U.S. Attorney’s Office, D.C.
___________________________________________________________________
The Obama Coup D’etat in America is the most egregious abuse of power and the most prodigious crime in American political history. The co-conspirators are:
Kevin Clinesmith, Bill Taylor, Eric Ciaramella, Rosenstein, Mueller/Team, Andrew Weissmann,
James Comey, Christopher Wray, McCabe, Strozk, Page, Laycock, Kadzic, Sally Yates,
James Baker, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Priestap, Kortan, Campbell, Sir Richard Dearlove,
Christopher Steele, Simpson, Joseph Mifsud, Alexander Downer, Stefan “The Walrus” Halper,
Azra Turk, Kerry, Hillary, Huma, Mills, Brennan, Gina Haspel, Clapper, Lerner, Farkas, Power,
Lynch, Rice, Jarrett, Holder, Brazile, Sessions (patsy), Nadler, Schiff, Pelosi, Obama,
Joe Biden, James E. Boasberg, Emmet Sullivan, Gen. Milley, George Soros, John McCain,
Marc Elias, Igor Danchenko, Fiona Hill, Charles H. Dolan, Jake Sullivan, Strobe Talbot,
Cody Shear, Victoria Nuland, Ray “Red Hat” Epps, Don Berlin, Kathy Ruemmler, Rodney Joffe,
Paul Vixie, L. Jean Camp, Andrew Whitney, Lisa O. Monaco, Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg,
Matthew Colangelo, Merrick Garland, Juan Merchan, Timothy Thibault et al.
Nice recap! You have been paying attention! Thanks.
When describing the Democrat’s political trickery, the word “greatest” should never be in the title. The word despicable is more appropriate.
“Criminal” is a better description of democrat activities.
“The Dutch trusted that the CIA wasn’t also part of the illegal scheme.”
A quibble: “most despicable” is what you are looking for: both terms are superlative…
If we’re dirty, everyone else must be too. That’s the key assumption behind every ends-justify-the-means investigation they started on Donald Trump. Give us the shovel and watch us find dirt.
Love it
CNN’s Harry Enten Says Americans View Democrats’ “Brand” as “Complete Garbage”
Quick, send out Senator Spartacus to rally the base!
DustOff,
Finally. Something MSM gets right. For once.
The way one could determine that all of this — or anything else they rolled out — was fake, and we saw it immediately, is that their nonsense smear stories aligned with the evil cartoon character the Dems had drawn for years of Trump but it did not align with the actual person Trump. And stupidly they must have believed in the cartoon character they had created because they believed the Steele Dossier, for example would fly with the majority of the public.
To refer to this attempted coup as a “trick” is being awfully damned generous, even if it is to draw an analogy with a magician’s act.
Hey. Anyone seen “george”
Ssssssh. If you say the name three times, she’ll appear.
Yikes… sorry
His employer, Media Matters, is out of money, unable to pay their legal bills to Mark Elias, and now their trolls are out of a job. Media Matters founder, David Brock and MM president Angelo Carusone are losing their careers. Most observers who know of MM’s duplicity are LOL. the DNC paid troll known as Dennis McIntyre, Natacha/Gigi, Wally, Svelaz, Elvis bug, Peter Hill, Enoch Poor, Franke, and countless other sock puppets has been cut off financially. Now he will have to find a real job. His days of “manipulating Res Ipsa comments to falsely link Turley’s platform to white nationalists and anti-Semites” are numbered. Good riddance.
‘You Must Be Kidding’: Media Matters, Collapsing Under Siege from Elon Musk, Fumes at Massive Legal Bills From Marc Elias Firm
“Left-wing nonprofit reportedly considering closing up shop amid Elon Musk lawsuit”
According to the New York Times, Elias Law Group originally represented Media Matters against Musk’s lawsuit, which accused the group of manipulating X posts to falsely link the social media platform to white nationalists and anti-Semites part of what Musk alleged was “a ploy to drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.” The litigation and other legal fights with the attorneys general of several red states have left Media Matters with $15 million in legal costs, forcing the Democratic media juggernaut to consider laying off staff, filing bankruptcy, or shutting down altogether, the Times reported.
Elias Law hasn’t helped matters.
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/you-must-be-kidding-media-matters-fumed-at-massive-legal-bills-from-marc-elias-firm/
Estovir,
Ahhh! Thank you for bringing that to our attention!
How marvelous!
🫡
Estovir , It’s also a combination of the USAID grift drying up. They no longer have huge bags of taxpayer cash funneled to them through NGO’s to keep their propaganda mills up and running.
Why was this part of the report classified?
Why is anything classified these days? To cover someone’s backside. In this case, a lot of backsides.
When the government screws up or there is a financial debacle, they classify it. This happens every day in the day and life of the government contracts and acts of incompetence.
Absolutely. Most of what gets classified these days had no business ever being classified. It’s done routinely now in order to hide the incompetence and the grifting.
“Guillotine Polka”
Roll out the guillotine, we’ll have a guillotine of fun!
Roll out the guillotine, we’ve got the Blues on the run!
“To do so would not be coverage, it would be a confession.”
He doesn’t go far enough. It’s collusion, in treason.
After the shroud is removed, the formidable Deep Deep State “Swamp” denizens don’t appear “deep” at all.
In fact, they appear quite shallow and small.
The SOB turned out to be just as corrupt as those he was tasked to investigate.