The Kavanaugh “bump” faded almost before it could be registered, and Donald Trump’s attempts to turn a few hundred frightened families 1,000 miles from the US border into a military emergency have only inflamed racist hatred on this side of the border. With less than a week to go before Election Day, Republicans are flailing for something else, anything else, that might serve as a last-minute flag to rally their troops and decrease Democratic enthusiasm. The target of that effort appears to be special counsel Robert Mueller.
Already, noted figures in the most radical edges of the white nationalist media, including conspiracy theory central The Gateway Pundit, are spreading the “a big story is coming on Mueller” seeds. The gist of this upcoming “story” seems to be claims that Mueller is guilty of sexual harassment. As journalist Scott Stedman reports, this idea has been percolating among the alt-Reich ranks for some time.
Stedman: Two weeks ago, I was contacted by a woman who claimed to be a former associate of Mueller who said that she got a phone call from a man working on behalf of a GOP operative who was paying women to come forward to make up sexual assault allegations.
It’s unclear if these operatives have been able to find any takers, or if the story will simply be completely unsupported bullshit. After all, if Donald Trump can stand up and claim that people are currently rioting in California over immigration, that towns on Long Island are celebrating their liberation from MS-13 “like something out of World War II,” that Barack Obama was about to go to war with North Korea, and that a caravan of Honduran refugees contains “a high percentage” of Middle Eastern terrorists … why should anyone on the right hesitate to just pull a story from any handy orifice?
None of this is to say that Robert Mueller is automatically a saint. He’s not. Or that he’s automatically excused from any claims of sexual harassment. He isn’t. Or that any woman coming forward with such a claim against Mueller should not be heard. She should.
But this doesn’t appear to be a “story breaking.” It appears to be “story making.”
Nationalist operatives understand well enough that Democrats want to listen carefully to women who are brave enough to come forward against public figures. And they understand that Democrats are willing to support women in situations where that support means surrendering a degree of political power. Nationalists regard this as a weakness, one they can exploit.
So do Russians. That’s why sexism, like racism, is often the focus of attacks by Russia’s bought-and-paid-for social media and network of ‘bots.
If any sort of semi-legitimate site or publication runs with a story suggesting Mueller committed any form of sexual harassment, expect Fox, Breitbart, Drudge, and others to be sounding every siren, using 98-point chyrons, and flying every flag that says “Democrats say they’re really concerned about women—if they don’t attack Mueller, they’re hypocrites.”
And it’s possible that the story coming forward isn’t just an attack on Mueller meant to discredit the Russia investigation and provide a little coal for the Witch Hunt blazes at a point where Mueller has stayed scrupulously silent. The effort here could be a two-in-one: Throw some dirt at Mueller, while also discrediting the media.
Stedman: I concluded that this was an effort to discredit journalists working on the Trump-Russia story by planting a false story and see who would print it. I still don't know what to make of the entire situation, but I fear that this is a scheme to discredit those who are reporting on the Russia investigation. If the story coming out tomorrow matches the story I heard, I will post more details.
This sounds very like something that could be originating out of the sickly-named Project Veritas, or a similar effort. From the gloating of the alt-Reich, it appears they’ve found a sucker. Or they’ve simply decided to run the story themselves. After all, no one ever holds up sites like Breitbart or Gateway Pundit to any concept of “truth.”
An attack on Mueller now could also have benefits that linger post-election. It’s clear that as soon as the polls close, Donald Trump intends to bag attorney general Jefferson Sessions, with the approval of Republican senators. That move will immediately imperil Mueller’s position. If they can ding public support for Mueller, even temporarily, that will make it easier for Donald Trump to make Mueller disappear and remove authority from any report that emerges.
Tuesday, Oct 30, 2018 · 4:55:55 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
HillReporter is also flagging this scheme.
A little over a week ago several journalists, including myself, received an email from an individual claiming to have been offered money in exchange for alleging sexual misconduct on the part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
And is equally unclear about whether the attack is primarily at Mueller, the press, or both.
Tuesday, Oct 30, 2018 · 6:17:23 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
And the answer is … the Alt-Reich is doing it themselves. The utterly discredited News Max has announced that they will be holding a press conference on Thursday morning to “reveal the first” of “Robert Mueller’s sex assault victims.”
News Max prefaces this with “sad news.” Which doesn’t drown out all the giggling coming from sites that believed they are being So Damn Clever.
Tuesday, Oct 30, 2018 · 6:20:33 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
The Atlantic reports that the special counsel’s office has asked the FBI to look into this scheme to discredit Mueller by paying people to create stories of sexual harassment or assault.
An alleged scheme to pay off women to fabricate sexual assault allegations against Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been referred to the FBI for further investigation, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office told The Atlantic. “When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the Special Counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation,” the spokesman, Peter Carr, told me in an email on Tuesday.
That should ensure some audience for News Max when they role out step one of this smear on Thursday. The people behind this who are laughing over how they’ve come up with the perfect trap for Democrats who have supported Mueller … aren’t likely to be laughing for long.
The special counsel’s attention to this scheme—which was brought to the office by a woman claiming she herself had been offered money to make up sexual harassment claims against Mueller—and its decision to release a rare statement about it indicates the seriousness with which the office is taking the purported scheme to discredit Mueller in the middle of an ongoing investigation.