Whether powerful top deep state leadership waged war against the 2016 Trump campaign out of a misguided senses of patriotism, or expectations that their support to an inevitable Clinton win would reap career rewards, or both, their actions constituted nothing less than an attempted coup against democracy.
There can be no doubt whatsoever that many of the key individuals in this ugly saga despised the prospect of a Trump presidency. Clear records they left behind leave no possible doubt of this fact.
Nor is there any question that Hillary Clinton constantly stirred up self-inflicted disasters that demanded all the assistance their most willing covert talents and tools could ably provide. And she gave them unlimited opportunities to do so.

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Timeline of an Attempted Deep State Takedown of the Trump Presidency: A Two-Part Series
Part One: The Deep State’s Covert Campaign Against Donald Trump
Part Two: The Impeachment of America’s Electorate

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Major political problems arose for Clinton during her service as Secretary of State over her lack of response to the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that left four Americans, including Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, dead. The Trump administration repeatedly attributed the event to spontaneous protests over a religiously- offensive video.
A bipartisan U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence investigation concluded that the attacks were preventable and that there had been no protests in the area prior to occurrence.

The 800-page January 15, 2014 report also delivered a broad rebuke of the Defense Department, CIA and the State Department — and the officials who led them — for failing to grasp the acute security risks in Benghazi, and especially for maintaining outposts that they could not protect.

The finding also criticized Susan Rice for making numerous false televised interview statements that a State Department press officer had described in an email as “off the reservation on five networks!” In addition, it chided the Obama administration for repeatedly seeking to obstruct the committee’s investigation by delaying or refusing to respond to requests for documents and testimony.
Bad circumstances for 2016 presidential candidate Clinton became exacerbated when more than 100 classified emails issued during her State Department tenure were discovered on her unsecured private server. Included were 22 deemed “Top Secret,” and 65 deemed “Secret.” More than 2,000 others were retroactively classified by the State Department.
Prior to congressional hearings on the controversy, about 33,000 other emails that Clinton claimed were personal were deleted. In addition, her server was “wiped” of all information using “BleachBit.” More than 13 mobile devices associated with her two phone numbers and personal email domain that were requested to be turned over to the FBI wound up “missing.”
It turned out that one of her aides twice destroyed old mobile devices with a hammer.
Several of Hillary’s emails with classified information were found on her closest aide’s, Huma Abedin’s, husband’s – Anthony Weiner’s – personal computer. The Former Democratic congressman was clearly a blackmail national security risk, later sentenced to 21 months in prison for sending sexually explicit texts to a 15-year-old girl.

FBI Gives Clinton a Pass on “Midyear Exam”:

Clinton’s heated Benghazi controversy and email scandal came at a particularly inopportune time when her 2016 presidential campaign was in full swing. It didn’t help that her presumptive GOP rival, Donald J. Trump, was branding her as “Crooked Hillary.”
On June 10, 2015, the FBI opened what turned out to be a very friendly obligatory investigation coded as “Midyear Exam.”
The following year on May 4, 2016 –  before the election – virulently anti-Trump FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok who led the Clinton email inquiry, texted his similarly biased lover, FBI Special Counsel Lisa Page: “Now the pressure really starts to finish MYE [Mid-Year Exam investigation of Clinton].” Page responds: “It sure does.”
Two months later, FBI Director Comey closed MYE on July 5. That was the same day Comey announced that while Hillary had been “extremely careless,” she would not face criminal charges. Comey argued that no charges be filed because she had not acted with “criminal intent” that he inaccurately claimed constituted the necessary historical standard for pursuing criminal prosecution.

A politically “awkward” event had occurred on June 27 when Bill Clinton invited himself to have an impromptu discussion with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch about “grandchildren” as her aircraft was parked nearby his at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The optics were “inopportune” at a time when Lynch’s Justice Department was investigating his wife over handling of classified information in unsecure emails.
It is widely speculated that deeply unwelcome publicity surrounding that 20-minute encounter subsequently influenced Comey’s decision that he, and not Lynch, should be the person to later publicly announce that Clinton would not face criminal charges.

Stirring Up a “Crossfire Hurricane” Against Trump:

Whereas the FBI’s Midterm Exam furnished Hillary with a cheat sheet, the agency instituted a rap sheet against Trump under the code name “Crossfire Hurricane.”
According to Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., Hillary Clinton had approved a plan on July 2016 to “stir up a scandal” campaign distraction by tying Trump to Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee email server.

U.S. intelligence agencies soon learned that the Trump Russian collusion smear was based upon phony opposition research compiled and paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steel.

Sen. Johnson reported that by October 2016, the FBI was already aware that one of Steel’s sub-sources worked for Russian intelligence services. (In December 2016, the agency learned that Steel’s primary sub-source was someone it had investigated as a suspected Russian asset in 2009.)
A primary sub-source interviewed by the FBI described his reporting as the kind of conversation you’d have “with friends over beers.” The FBI also received intelligence reporting that the Steel dossier contained Russian disinformation.
Yet in March 2018, according to Sen. Johnson, the FBI still falsely briefed the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that information in the Steel dossier was reliable.
Much of the open-source material was supplied by Nellie Ohr, the wife of Associate Attorney General Bruce Ohr. Remarkably, Nellie worked for Fusion GPS, the same organization that employed Christopher Steel. Both, in fact, were working to connect either Trump or his presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort to government corruption in Russia and Ukraine.
Tom Fitton, head of Judicial Watch pointed to serious conflict of interest issues hidden behind the marriage: “The documents show that Nellie Ohr had extraordinary access to the Justice Department. Nellie Ohr may as well as had a desk at DOJ.”
Both Ohrs had met with Steel at the Washington Mayflower Hotel on July 31, 2016, who, like herself, was working on Trump-Russia research. The following day, Bruce Ohr met with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to pass on Steel’s allegations.
Comey was briefed by senior staff on the Crossfire Hurricane investigation of Trump on August 6. CIA Director John Brennan later briefed President Obama about this activity.
That same day, Lisa Page texted Strzok: “And maybe you’re meant to stay where you are [in heading Crossfire Hurricane] because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace [Trump].”
Two days later, Page texted Strzok: “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right?!” Strzok replied, “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”
Strzok texted Page on August 15: “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy [McCabe]’s office – that there’s no way he [Trump] gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before 40…”
The FBI admitted to DOJ attorney Stu Evans on October 11 that Christopher Steel “had been paid to develop political opposition research for the Clinton campaign.” The DOJ was concerned that evidence of bias might need to be disclosed in an application to the FISA court in connection with an investigation of Carter Page who was only marginally connected with the Trump campaign.
Then on October 28, just days before the election, Comey notified Congress that the FBI had started looking into newly discovered Clinton emails. Shortly afterwards, on November 6, Comey notified Congress that the FBI had not changed its original conclusion.
A January 5, 2017 meeting involving President Obama, Vice President Biden, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, National Security Advisor Susan Rice and FBI Director Comey – shortly before Trump’s inauguration – reportedly included discussions of how to continue the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation going forward.
Rice later wrote a highly suspicious memo to herself on January 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration memorializing the meeting when she stressed that Obama wanted “every aspect of this issue handled by the Intelligence and law enforcement communities [was to be done] by the book.”

On January 6, 2017, Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, National Security Agency (NSA) Director Michael Rogers, and FBI Director James Comey traveled to Trump Tower in New York to brief the president-elect on the intelligence community’s findings about Russian campaign interference.

Pursuant to Clapper’s suggestion, Comey then met privately with Trump to discuss “salacious material” gathered on him by “a former British intelligence official” that the U.S. “had not verified.” The Wall Street Journal reported that Comey memorialized his discussion with Trump on January 7, writing: “[I] executed the session exactly as planned.”
The murky sources and uncorroborated substance of that infamous Christopher Steel dossier was repeatedly omitted from Foreign Intelligence Security Act (FISA) court applications that were illegally used to spy on people connected to the Trump campaign. Another fiercely anti-Trump FBI attorney, Kevin Clinesmith, later admitted to intentionally altering key information on one, a FISA surveillance submission for Carter Page.
Strzok had texted Lisa Page, “support from McCabe might be necessary to move the FISA application forward.” He again texted Page: “Currently fighting with Stu for this FISA.” The FISA warrant against Carter Page was approved on October 21.
A week after Trump was sworn into office on January 20, 2017, Comey was invited to a private White House dinner. In his recollection, the president told him “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.”
Comey has admitted leaking this confidential conversation to the New York Times via his friend, Columbia Professor Daniel Richman, for the express purpose of triggering the appointment of a special Russia investigation prosecutor.

An Overdue Call for Justice:

The resulting Mueller investigation turned up no evidence whatsoever of Trump campaign collusion with any Russian sources. As for salacious personal claims against Trump in the Steel “dirty dossier,” recently released documents reveal that the FBI was well-aware that he had never stayed at the Russian hotel where such events were supposed to have occurred.
By 2018, growing doubts concerning the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email “matter” prompted the Trump administration DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz to launch an investigation that became highly critical of Comey’s performance.
The DOJ report concluded that the FBI-Russia investigation was flawed, and it criticized both the FOJ and FBI for 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to the secret FISA court filings targeting Carter page.
Current FBI Director Christopher Wray agreed that the Justice Department and the FBI illegally surveilled Carter Page when they used British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s unverified dossier to obtain four FISA warrants against the Trump campaign associate.
In a rare public order, the FISA court described the FBI’s handling of the Page applications as “antithetical to the heightened duty of candor,” and demanded an evaluation from the bureau.
In addition, the FISA court ordered a review of all FISA filings handled by Kevin Clinesmith who had altered a key document about Page in the third renewal process.
During a June 14 press conference, IG Horowitz said that Comey’s actions to conceal his intentions (about his press conference announcement) were “extraordinary and insubordinate,” and that none of his explanations amounted to a “persuasive basis for deviating from well-established department policies.”
Trump fired Comey on May 9, and on May 17, a newly confirmed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russian meddling.
Andrew McCabe was fired on April 19, 2018, Lisa Page resigned on May 4, 2018, Peter Strzok was fired on August 10, 2018, and Bruce Ohr was fired on October 14, 2020.
As for Hillary – whose campaign truly colluded with Russian agents, everything – except for the election results – seems to have worked out pretty much as planned with no consequences.
Others responsible for this corrupt scandal will also likely escape accountability if Democrats regain the White House. Attorney John Durham who is tasked by Attorney General William Barr to investigate the sordid coup attempt has decided to delay his findings until after the election.
Time may be rapidly running out to expose and penalize covert assaults on America’s democracy by a hopefully very few corrupt top-level deep state bureaucrats we have entrusted to protect it.
It might soon become too late to expect real justice from the DOJ.
Part Two: The Impeachment of America’s Electorate