After former FBI Director James Comey decisively undermined the Big Lie, the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy that President Trump and/or his associates “colluded” with “the Russians,” his enemies in the Government-Deep State-Media Regime began to switch tactics.

There was no collusion, or even any necessarily inappropriate contacts between Trump and the enigmatic “Russians.” However, the anti-Trump forces declared, there was an attempt on the part of the President to “obstruct justice.”

As everyone now knows, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, who was Trump’s National Security Adviser, was fired by the President not long after acquiring his position.  Flynn, as it happened, had misled Vice President Mike Pence after failing to disclose that he had discussed with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak the sanctions that Barack Obama slapped on Russia immediately before leaving office.  The President, as well as many others, maintains that in having these discussions, Flynn acted unobjectionably, much less criminally.

Still, because he misled Pence, Trump asked for his resignation.

In a private conversation regarding Flynn, Trump expressed his “hope” to Comey that the latter could “see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”  “He is a good guy,” the President added.  “I hope you can let this go.”

Comey agreed with Trump’s assessment of Flynn’s character. “I agree he is a good guy.”

There are two considerations to bear in mind here.

First, if Comey has reason to believe that General Flynn is indeed “a good guy,” then doesn’t this suggest that he felt as strongly as his boss that this good guy is not a criminal?  Is it morally possible for anyone, to say nothing of the head of one of our nation’s leading law enforcement agencies, to consistently commend a man for his character while suspecting that he is a criminal?  I have yet to hear anyone raise this question.

Second, as has been said by even Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter Alan Dershowitz, famed Harvard University Professor Emeritus of Law, Trump, being Comey’s boss, does indeed have the authority to tell his subordinates who they will and won’t prosecute: The heads of the intelligence agencies serve at the behest of the President. This being said, this president did not direct this FBI Director to prosecute or not anyone.

Republican Senator James Risch made sure that Comey established this.  Risch quoted Comey’s own words back to him when questioning him about “allegations that the President of the United States obstructed justice.” Alluding to the page and paragraph numbers of those parts of Comey’s memo in which the latter quotes Trump, Risch reminded him that Comey placed in quotation marks the President’s use of the words “I hope” during their conversation over Flynn.  The dialogue between Risch and Comey was as follows:

Risch: “Now, those are his exact words; is that correct?”

Comey: “Correct.”

Risch: “And you wrote them here and you put them in quotes.”

Comey: “Correct.”

Risch: “Thank you for that. He [Trump] did not direct you to let it go” (emphasis added).

Comey: “Not in his words, no” (emphasis added).

Risch: “He did not order you to let it go” (emphasis added).

Comey: “Again, those words are not an order” (emphasis added).

Risch: “No. He said, ‘I hope.’ Now, like me, you probably did hundreds of cases, maybe thousands of cases, charging people with criminal offenses.  And of course you have knowledge of the thousands of cases out there where people have been charged.  Do you know of any case where a person has been charged for obstruction of justice or for that matter any other criminal offense where they said or thought they hoped for an outcome?

Comey: “I don’t know well enough to answer.  And the reason I keep saying his words is, I took it as a direction.”

Risch: “Right.”

Comey continued, explaining that he felt that the President was attempting to derail the investigation into Flynn.  Risch didn’t relent:

“You may have taken it as a direction, but that’s not what he said.”

Comey: “Correct.”

Risch: “He said, ‘I hope.’”

Comey: “Those are exact words, correct.”

Risch: “You don’t know of anyone that’s been charged for hoping something?”

Comey was forced to capitulate: “I don’t, as I sit here.”

Of course, no one has ever been prosecuted for expressing a hope.

Nor is Flynn a “key figure” in “the” Russia probe, as Fake News outlets would have us think.  Even a professional Trump-hater like MSNBC’s Chris Mathews had to concede that both the Russian “collusion” conspiracy (that he has busily peddled) as well as the Regime’s line on Flynn “came apart” during Comey’s testimony.

As it turns out, Mathews said, “Flynn wasn’t central to the Russian investigation.”

There was no Trump/Russian “collusion.”  The President was never the subject, or even a part of, a criminal investigation.  Trump never sought to obstruct justice, and Flynn is anything but a “key figure” in some “Russian probe.” This is what came out of James Comey’s testimony.

There were, however, other damning things to take away from it. Yet it is Comey, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and, by implication, former President Barack Obama who were damned.

Comey—the head of the most powerful law agency in the country—when asked why, potentially in violation of the law, he refused to report what he supposedly suspected was an attempt on Trump’s part to obstruct justice, replied that he lacked the strength and courage to do so!

He further reinforced the impression of his weakness of character when he expressly said that Obama’s AG, Loretta Lynch, directed him to mislead Congress and the nation into thinking, counterfactually, that Hillary Clinton was not under a criminal investigation.  It was Clinton, Comey admitted, not Trump, who was indeed the subject, the target, of a criminal investigation.

It was Lynch, not Trump, who opened herself to the charge that she sought to “direct,” or “misdirect,” an FBI investigation.

It was Obama, Lynch, and Comey, not Trump, who politicized law enforcement for the sake of protecting, not Flynn or anyone else on Team Trump, but Clinton.

Trump’s enemies can continue trying to push the Vast Left-wing Conspiracy of Russian Collusion. They are the only people who care about it.  But since this Big Lie came at a price, those who spread it must be made to pay their share of the cost.

The Trump administration is now, reportedly, looking into pursuing Comey for being a leaker.  This is a start. The Clintons, Obama, and Lynch must also be investigated in due time and the Deep State Swamp finally drained.