For months, Robert Mueller has been the subject of a steadily growing conspiracy web “proving” that he’s corrupt.
One example, among many, is the website DefyCCC, which is cross-posted to American Thinker. Their article “Mueller Investigation Was Bought For More Than 130K Yen” explains in great detail how Robert Mueller was paid that immense sum by the Chinese government via shell agencies and speaking fees, and that Mueller is a likely Chinese agent because of it. They mention in the story that 130K Yuan is less than $25K in U.S. dollars, but apparently they think that Mueller’s a cheap date. Why he would take such money from China rather than grab cash from a Democrat group who, being based in this country, would have much greater facility in providing much larger payments in a legal fashion (such as nomination to a key board, a standard experience for retired D.C. bigwigs), is an unanswered question.
There were also theories brought forth that Mueller was an agent not of China, but of Russia, because he was the person who was the head of the FBI when the Uranium One deal was authorized (one example among many can be found here, from a local “conservative” radio host). Allowing Russia to have influence over any American mineral assets – particularly those associated with nuclear weapon construction – is a questionable decision. But only by overstating his influence on the purchase (he signed off on it!) and by overstating the importance of the purchase (20% of the U.S. land which may or may not contain uranium is not the same as 20% of our mined uranium) was the deal turned into nefarious activity by Mueller.
Items like these were used to supplement the existing reasons presented by Republicans for ending the Mueller investigation. Mueller had too many Democrats on his prosecution team. His association with James Comey was presented as if it were a friendship like that of Lindsey Graham & John McCain. Peter Strzok & Lisa Page. The Democrats helped to fund the Steele Dossier (after it was commissioned by a Republican).
Most of those accusations would be negligible if Mueller is even a remotely competent investigator, for he would recognize and account for potential errors and bias. The “friendship” charge, however, was used to directly attack Mueller’s honesty.
The result was that Republicans were being told by people like the leadership at Judicial Watch and Newt Gingrich that Mueller was corrupt, and their associated conspiracists were “proving” that the corruption went even deeper, he was an agent of a foreign power bent on harming OUR PRESIDENT.
In a whiplash-inducing feat of reversal, the Republican party has now grasped hold of the Barr summary of the Mueller report, and the statements of President Trump (which go even further than the Barr summary, claiming complete exoneration where the summary directly states there is no exoneration on the charge of obstruction). Mueller is now a completely trustworthy individual. The months of smears are to be forgotten – this is just politics, after all. And it’s war, somehow. And political war means that truth and principles are necessary casualties, the team is all that matters.
While it’s fascinating to see the inability of the Trump defenders to recognize their own duplicity and inconsistency, they’re not alone. Upon release of the Barr summary, Democrat sites immediately began speculating that the fix had been in the entire time. Memes started circulating. These have mostly calmed after some in the Democrat punditry started pointing out the difference between a Barr summary and the actual Mueller report, but rumblings and complaints remain.
It is highly doubtful that Barr actually lied in his summation of the report; rather, if he is attempting to cover for Trump, he will have ignored all of the damning results of the investigation while presenting only targeted answers about whether a prosecution will be pursued. In that event, even if the Mueller report does contain multiple details of highly questionable activities by those associated with the Trump camp, I fully expect that the rumors of corruption will again be presented by Democrats and Democrat sympathizers.
Typically conspiracy theories grow because they allow their proponents to feel special, as if they possess secret knowledge that somehow enhances their value and status in the world. In this case, the conspiracy theories are simply being used as political actions, to sell people things they want to hear rather than have them face the truth: first, that Trump Administration officials were corrupt, and then that some of the officials believed to have been corrupt may either be technically innocent or have been competent enough at covering their tracks to prevent an absolute chain of evidence which would present a suitable likelihood of a successful federal prosecution.
