The Russian "collusion" meme seemed absurd to me from the start. People just repeated the same shallow talking points, almost in unison, over and over, when nothing that Trump was being lambasted for came any where close to questionable long-standing Clinton/Russia connections, including facilitating the sale of American uranium to the Russians, and campaign manager John Podesta's firm, which lobbied on behalf of Putin's Russian bank for years. Podesta's brother was up to his eyeballs in Ukraine. Shoot, even Joe Biden's son was involved in a tangle there. Sharyl Attkisson reported some of the basics at The Hill back in January, but it's been public knowledge far longer than that.
Even before Mueller closed up shop, it was obvious from the lack of Russia related indictments, that he wasn't finding anything. He'd pull people in for process crimes, hoping they'd offer up information in exchange for plea deals, without success. Even Manafort, whom I do not defend, was hauled up on Ukraine related charges that other prosecutors had declined to pursue years ago, and again, had nothing to do with Russian interference in the election.
If Mueller and his crack team of partisan prosecutors couldn't find anything after 2 years and $30 million, then I think it's safe to say there's just no there there. It's not like Democrats and the media haven't been trying just as assiduously to find something on Trump ever since he won the election, either. The revival of demands for Trump's taxes is about as transparent as a fishing expedition gets. They can't tell you what they're looking for, they just know there's got to be something there they can use!
The fact that the US government was spying on the opposition Presidential candidate's campaign is the real scandal here, IMO. Democrats can call it surveillance, as if that makes a difference. We've known for some time that the document on which the intell agents based their FISA application for the original and subsequent warrants was a dossier paid for by the Clinton campaign and the DNC. The FISA judge was never informed of that fact. As if that weren't bad enough, when a Special Counsel is appointed, it is incumbent on the DoJ to include the crime which is to serve as the predicate for his investigation in the grant of authority. No underlying crime was specified, and that wasn't a simple oversight. There's a lot more info out there, but those are some of the highlights.
I think the rolling investigations make things more difficult on the international front. It's not the investigations per se, it's the uncertainty about what the Democrats are trying to do. People like the former Ambassador to Ukraine, who told the Ukrainians not to worry about heeding Trump, because there was no way he would be serving out his full term, are not helping the US! Sheesh!
