Letters

There are two concurrent news stories competing for the national attention this week.

One of them is the Jeffery Epstein story, which many feel could establish a connection with well-known elites and Mr. Epstein’s procurement of underage girls for them. We don’t know if there is any “there” there yet, but expectations were raised.

Now, whether or not something nefarious is discovered, the pitchforks are out, leading a Salem-esque rush to find an evildoer. For Democrats, this, hopefully, could tarnish the president whom they so deeply despise. A real danger is that merely having been associated with Mr. Epstein might, in the present climate, be used by the ignorant to paint the innocent individual with undeserved shame and disgrace.

Ironically, this tactic is made use of in the other story competing for your attention: the exposure of the Obama administration’s effort to shield the Clinton campaign from damaging revelations concerning her handling of national security intelligence on private phones and computer servers that became criminally eligible for prosecution by the Justice Department.

The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee invested money in the acquisition of a fraudulent report that espoused the lie that candidate Donald Trump was compromised, and “Russiagate” was born. The story would involve the CIA and FBI. John Brennan, director of the CIA, received internal analysis of the bogus Clinton report that doubted the authenticity of the information. Director Brennan nonetheless gave it his approval, knowing it would give cover to the Clinton crimes. Brennan leaked the report to the eager legacy media, who ran with it, believing it came from reliable sources.

The FBI began its own investigation using the same fallacious information. Prior to the 2020 election, FBI Director James Comey met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss the Clinton investigation. The FBI had ample evidence of Clinton crimes in mishandling secure information, but AG Lynch would not indict fellow Democrat Clinton. Instead, she made it Director Comey’s decision — and he delivered a confusing explanation arguing that Clinton was guilty but it didn’t rise to the level he would recommend for criminal prosecution.

In spite of Comey’s effort to protect Hillary Clinton’s candidacy, she would lose the election. On the other hand, the lie about a compromised Donald Trump would live on for two more years, as the FBI continued to investigate and, congressional Democrats, led by Adam Schiff, swore to the veracity of the lie, and the legacy media (The New York Times) accepted a Pulitzer for its irresponsible reporting.

Ed Surgan

Westhampton