David Johnson: How we got here: one theory

Just for arguments sake here’s one speculative hypothesis about how we got to where we are today vis-a-vis the “Russian hacking” story. In the context of the 2016 highly emotional presidential election pitting Clinton vs. Trump there was a concerted effort on the part of Clinton-partisans to try to make the central campaign theme an expose of alleged Trump-Russia connections. If you voted for Trump you were voting for Putin. Careless remarks by Trump facilitated this. This thrust was accelerated when there was a need to deal from Wikileaks revelations of going-ons at the Democratic National Committee. The DNC working with its employee Crowdstrike built the “Russian hacking” story first. Of course, no one involved really thought that Trump would win the election. When Clinton won the “Russian connection” story, having served its election purpose, would recede from prominence. As so many campaign themes do. But to the consternation of nearly everyone Trump won. And immediately alarmed people in and out of government seized on the “Russian hacking” story to try to impact the threatening Trump environment. Once launched to such prominence natural inclinations toward paranoia, partisanship, and historical animosities took hold and accelerated. In the best of all world’s a real investigation of the “Russian hacking” story would begin with an investigation of the DNC and Crowdstrike. First question: Why did the DNC prevent the FBI from examining the alleged hacked computers? Just keep in mind that everyone involved feels that they were doing the right thing, however careless.