After the FBI executed a court-approved search warrant at Mar-a-Lago last summer, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik was among the many GOP voices who scrambled to defend Donald Trump. In fact, the New York Republican settled on a specific line of argument that was part of a broader rhetorical push.
“This is Russia hoax 2.0,” Stefanik told Axios last August.
Over the weekend, after the former president predicted that he’ll soon be indicted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the Republican Conference Chair again turned her attention to the Russia scandal. Stefanik’s tweet on Saturday read:
“The Radical Left is continuing the disgraceful and unconstitutional pattern going back to the illegal Russian collusion hoax to attempt to silence and suppress the will of the voters who support President Trump and the America First Movement.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence was apparently thinking along the same lines, arguing in a radio interview on Saturday that the investigation in New York “reeks of the kind of political prosecution that we endured back in the days of the Russia hoax.”
To be sure, on the surface, this isn’t altogether new. Republicans have spent years trying to dismiss the Russia scandal, largely out of partisan necessity: The truth was a disaster for Trump and his political operation, so their allies set out to assure Americans that we need not trust our lying eyes.
But revisiting our earlier coverage, this has become a go-to response to practically every legal mess the former president finds himself in. The FBI showed up at Mar-a-Lago to retrieve classified documents Trump refused to give back? This is just like the Russia scandal. Trump’s hush money scandal appears likely to lead to his indictment? This is reminiscent of the Russia scandal, too.
It’s quite possible that for those living in a conservative bubble — folks, for example, who were led to believe former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report “exonerated“ Trump, reality be damned — such a public-relations strategy will prove wildly effective. I have no doubt that a painfully large chunk of the population will reflexively dismiss all allegations related to the former president, precisely because they’ve been conditioned to believe that all news that casts the Republican in an unflattering light is “fake.”
But for everyone else, now seems like a good time to review some core truths about the Russia scandal.
Russia attacked the American elections in 2016
Every U.S. intelligence agency and lawmakers from both parties have long agreed that the Kremlin launched an expansive and expensive covert military intelligence operation that targeted the U.S. political system in 2016. This basic fact is no longer contested — except by Trump, who publicly declared that he found Vladimir Putin more reliable than his own administration’s officials — and its importance is too often overlooked.
Russia’s goal was to put Trump in power
The Kremlin’s operation was not politically neutral: Moscow attacked our elections in the hopes of helping dictate the outcome. According to the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies, the Mueller investigation, and the multi-step investigation from the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee, Russia saw Trump as a prospective ally and believed it would be in its interests if the Republican were in the White House.
Russia and Team Trump were political allies
As regular readers know, investigations from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team and the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee documented the extent to which Trump and his team welcomed, received, and benefited from Russian campaign assistance. (They also obstructed the investigation into this assistance — by some measures, 10 times.)
The evidence also showed there was coordination and high-level connections between Trump’s political operation and those responsible for the attack on our elections. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s report at one point literally described a “direct tie between senior Trump Campaign officials and the Russian intelligence services.”
Team Trump lied about its communications with Russia No, really, Team Trump lied about its communications with Russia. A lot. Out loud and on record. Over and over again, Trump and his spokespersons insisted there were absolutely no interactions between the Republican, his political operation, and their Russian benefactors. We now know definitively that they were lying — though they still haven’t been forthcoming about why. The Russia scandal led to a series of felony convictions and prison sentences For an alleged “hoax,” the Russia scandal led to an amazing number of federal prosecutions. In fact, the investigation led to the convictions of, among others, Trump’s White House national security advisor, campaign chairman, deputy campaign chairman, foreign policy advisor, personal lawyer, and to the indictment of 13 Russian nationals who interfered in our elections as part of the larger plot. I realize, of course, that there are all kinds of contentious details and personalities related to the controversy, which are still being debated as part of the broader conversation about the story. But these five aforementioned truths are largely uncontested, and have been bolstered, not only by U.S. intelligence agencies, but also by the Mueller probe and the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee’s findings. Russia attacked our elections to help Trump. The Republican’s political operation welcomed, received, benefited from, and lied about Russian campaign assistance. Many key players from Trump’s inner circle were charged, prosecuted, and convicted. These aren’t opinions. They’re conclusions drawn from multiple, bipartisan investigations, conducted across several years. The only “hoax” here is the one being perpetrated by those pretending the Russia scandal wasn’t real. This post revises our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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