The double standard being doled out to Donald Trump and Republicans as it relates to the Russia scandal is chokingly debilitating.
Bill Clinton was impeached for far less, and there is no one on the planet, in his or her right mind, who would envision that Barack Obama would not already be drummed out of office and on the verge of facing jail time, if he and his administration had been accused of a morsel of the outrageously corrupt infractions that Donald Trump and his administration have been cited and, in some cases, admitted to have committed.
Last night, on MSNBC’s “All In” with Chris Hayes, military and intelligence analyst Malcolm Nance gave a chilling illumination of the news reports concerning Donald Trump’s Senior Advisor Jared Kushner, where, according to the Washington Post:
Jared Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring, according to U.S. officials briefed on intelligence reports.
Ambassador Sergey Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow that Kushner, son-in-law and confidant to then-President-elect Trump, made the proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower, according to intercepts of Russian communications that were reviewed by U.S. officials. Kislyak said Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications.
Emphasis diarist.
The stunning nature of Nance’s analysis was repeated by Brian Williams on his program “The 11th Hour”. Here is William’s introduction of Nance’s statement to his panel.
Brian Williams:
I want to share with all of you, a moment that transpired on air at this network tonight during the eight p.m. hour with Chris Hayes. For all those who would like to know how the people in our intelligence and counterintelligence community view this story tonight, listen to our own intelligence expert, a veteran of many years in the field … Malcolm Nance.
Malcolm Nance statement:
Some of these contacts are so suspicious that they would have warranted their own counter intelligence investigation. This nation is in a counterintelligence investigation; they are in a spy hunt over at the FBI, and now we have this story, should it prove true, of an American citizen, who is the Senior Advisor to the President of the United States, attempting to establish, what we call in the intelligence community, covert communications with a hostile nation’s potential intelligence agency or senior leadership?
That crosses the line to the espionage act of 1917. This cannot be explained—put aside the other 18 contacts with Russia—this one incident requires Jared Kushner and all of his immediate staff to have their clearance pulled right now, and to have the FBI descend on there to determine if this is hostile intelligence in the White House, one step from the President.
Paul Butler:
Let’s reiterate:
Kushner suggested using Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States for the communications.