by Robert Young Pelton

“The campaign had no contact with Russian officials,”

“It never happened, there was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”

Trump spokesperson Hope Hicks November  11, 2016

“One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.”

– Niccolo Machiavelli

Read Part One

As we learned in Part One, the hacking of emails, devices and computers are just one tool in the psyops toolbox. But it is what the hacker does with what they find that is important.  Even if nothing is found during the hack, the public cyber shaming of the victim for being incompetent on how they handle their communications can be a powerful psyops weapon as in the case of Hillary Clinton. An elderly woman who insisted on using Blackberry phones and telling her younger aide Huma Abedin”to print this out”. Huma used to also backup her Blackberry on her husband’s, laptop at home. Clinton as Secretary of State was expected to use government email to provide a historical record and a certain level of security. It would be discovered after she left office that she never used a .gov email address and had carefully wiped out her personal after her lawyers printed out the emails she felt were relevant. From this came the concept that Clinton had destroyed sensitive or incriminating emails. The unproven absence of something can be equally damaging as finding something during a hack.

So we begin our journey to find the fabled “Clinton Dirt” something that may have never really existed during the campaign but somehow allowed foreign powers, carpet baggers, hustlers and hangers-on to undermine the integrity of an election, and thereby casting doubt on the legitimacy of the democratically elected President. The search for Clinton Dirt was so powerful, so seductive that it created numerous provable links to Russian proxies and entities, none of whom actually had Clinton Dirt. Why would Russians promise they had Clinton Dirt and never deliver?  Was this a clever trap? The perfect way to ensnare a Presidential Candidate whose followers seemed obsessed with the idea that Hillary Clinton was a crook? Was this the perfect way to seduce Trump to prove that he was a crook and linked to Russian influence?

Is Donald Trump a Russian lackey? His staff’s constant denials set against the actual proof of clandestine, low key meetings and a list of compromised associates might appear to contradict his denials. There is no direct link of direct benefit to Trump but there is a stunning amount of circumstantial evidence that links dozens of Russia citizens to both Trump’s business and political campaign. Almost as if it was carefully planned that way knowing full well that there would be efforts to draw direct lines between Putin and Trump.

The allegation of Russian collusion would not be directly connected if Trump had not specifically asked the Russians to find Hillary’s missing emails. On July 27, 2016 Trump looked at the camera at a press conference and said” Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30000 emails that are missing, I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press”. Not Trump. The media.

Phishing emails from numerous Russian sources began to bombard the Clinton personal servers. So despite joking that the media would be all over any hidden emails from Clinton,  is that the proof that Trump conspired to hack Clinton?

It would be too simple to believe that is how the hack began. In reality the Internet Research Agency aka “the troll factor) was founded in the summer of 2013 in Putin’s home town of St. Petersburg, They had already begun supporting Trump in 2015 by essentially backing anyone who ran against Clinton. Trump became the de facto candidate of choice.

Was Hillary Clinton hiding something in her deleted emails she “wiped clean, like with a cloth” as she said on August 2015? Probably. But there is no evidence that Clinton even really seriously used email for anything important. Most of the emails that were labeled as sensitive to classified were simply passing through along with the tedious back and forth of travel and meeting needs. Essentially if Clinton was involved in dirty deals or underhanded activities, she was smart enough not to create an email record.

Her response captured her sense of tone deafness after it was revealed her IT people had used a professional program called BleachBit to wipe out any useful data on her New Jersey-based server before handing it over to law enforcement. If you are towards the right you will believe that Hillary Clinton is hiding something terrible, or rather was hiding something and had to delete her emails.

Or are both narratives wrong?

Was the bizarre number of people linked to Russia offering Trump Clinton Dirt, but never delivering it,  a very clever way to entrap him into looking like he was working with the Russians? Could it be that Clinton or Obama was catfishing Trump with proxies offering Clinton Dirt that didn’t exist?

Fusion GPS, the manager and producer of the Steele Dossier had another client in addition to the Democrats. Prevezon Holdings, or rather through BakerHostetler, the law firm that represented Denis Katsyv in his fight to get sanctions lifted. According to records, Fusion GPS was paid $523,651 between March and October 2016 to find damaging information against Bill Browder, the main instigator of the Magnitsky Act and sanctions.

Katsyv had also hired Russian lawyer and FSB informant Natalia Veselnitskaya to represent his company in the U.S. plea bargains. Incredibly, Glenn Simpson, the owner of FusionGPS met with Veselnitskaya just hours before and right after the Russians met at Trump Tower. This puts an entirely different spin on the reason for the Trump meeting when it becomes apparent of  Fusion GPS role in not only providing Trump Dirt to Russia and what appears to be quarterbacking the meeting with Trump’s people. Remember the two spies were being squired around DC by Paul Behrends to promote lifting of sanctions, but offered to provide Clinton Dirt to Trump Jr.

The June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower was odd. It was set up by Rob Goldstone. Goldstone worked for the Russian oligarch, Aras Agalarov, and his wannabe pop singer son, Emin.  Both had been part of getting Trump to stage the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. In a fascinating do-loop Veselnitskaya had shared Fusion GPS Steele Dossier with Yuri Chaika, the prosecutor general of Russia which Goldstone offered to Trump Jr after Paul Behrends who worked for Dana Rohrabacher had pimped Veselnitskaya all over D.C. in incredibly clumsy attempt to smear Magnitsky and lift sanctions. There was a loop here.

Rob Goldstone sent an email to Donald Jr. promising that “The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras (Agalarov, real estate magnate) this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and be very useful to your father.” this was the intro to Veselnitskaya. Who didn’t have anything on Clinton and quickly turned the conversation to sanctions. Even odder was the Trump cover story that Veselnitskaya was there to discuss the lifting of the banning of Russian child adoptions by Putin in retaliation for the sanctions. Perception? Trump was colluding with Russians to affect the elections. Reality? A waste of time, but a very public waste of time that would be be pointed to as proof of collusion.

Goldstone would later shrug it off and tell the Independent, “If I’m guilty of anything, and I hate the word guilty, it’s hyping the message and going the extra mile for my clients. Using hot-button language to puff up the information I had been given,”

A perfect example of tertiary effects of psyops in which Trump’s enemies may have set a trap, knowing his desperate need for “Clinton Dirt”. The Trump camp would actually find themselves saddled with the appearance of potential criminality and Russian collusion. So did Fusion GPS, the same company that created and shopped the “Trump in bed with Russians” Steele Dossier, also make money setting up Trump to look like he was in bed with the Russians?

If it is proven that neither Trump or Clinton were hacked and that neither had a ulterior motive in hiding anything would it really matter anymore? Each side was fed a narrative that was comfortable to them. Both sides burdened with a narrative that has yet to be based on actual proof.

Such is the power of hacking the human brain.

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Not knowing,  or not having evidence, is a powerful weapon to use against a target in a psyops campaign. Just like lying, or not telling something,  to the FBI is a powerful tool in flipping witnesses.  Why was Hillary Clinton allowed to choose which emails to hand over and why was she allowed to delete these emails she felt were irrelevant? Why were her associates devices seized and searched for classified information?

Worse, why wasn’t Clinton and her lawyers treated the same way by the FBI as Trump and his lawyer Michael Cohen? These are legitimate questions that support Trump supporters views that there is a “deep state” friendly to Obama era appointees and staff. A very Soviet idea but one that has support in the way that now fired Trump opponent Peter Strozk firewalled any expansion of the search beyond Clinton’s server.

Although forensics and aggressive FOIA’s are still piecing together what happened, the Clinton records aka emails while Secretary of State are being demanded in 38 different lawsuits.  It is not surprising that the missing emails became the single most inflammatory part of the 2016 election cycle and as we will show, cost Clinton the election.

In the run up to the 2016 election, those around Trump were virulently anti-Clinton and wanted those emails. Trump himself consistently accused his opponent of hiding something, being a criminal and going as far as creating the “lock her up” chant. Donald Trump and his camp hoped that something was those missing emails that would disgrace Clinton and be part of what could be used or an “October Surprise”. A term used to describe a piece of surprising news or shocking discovery about a political candidate that is dropped just before voters decide on which party will run the country.

The most famous example of an October Surprise is the 1980 release of the Iranian-held hostages as soon as Ronald Reagan took office. A despicable act of cruel deceit engineered by campaign manager and spook William Casey according to author Gary Sick who investigated a plot to ensure that President Carter would look powerless and not be elected.  Casey had been in the OSS in World War Two and run the European intelligence network. After Reagan was elected he headed the CIA and was responsible for a robust approach against Soviet influence around the world. Carter’s perceived inability to release the hostages crushed his reelection hopes.

This Reagan-era dirty trick was not forgotten by a group of Reagan-era Trump supporters who include Iran Contra figure Oliver North, close friend Erik Prince former boss and Reagan speechwriter Dana Rohrabacher and others. Trump seemed to gather Reaganites around him even though he had a history of being a liberal’s liberal and a libertine. Family values, religion, conservative values did not seem to square with the oft married, oft gossiped 80’s era social icon from Queens. But for this election he was right, perhaps right of right. Alt Right.

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Libertarians have always yearned to hack the Republican party. Terrified to to stray too far right, Trump offered the chance to enter uncharted water. Anarchistic almost. Steve McEveety, a deeply religious film producer that had worked for Mel Gibson at Icon and with Erik Prince on an anti-Iran film called the Stoning of Soraya M. McEveety introduced Bannon to Prince in late June of 2012.  After the death of Andrew Breitbart and a cash infusion from the Mercers, Bannon wanted to move fast and break things. He gathered around him lightening rods for controversy. Prince who had interned with Rohrabacher and Behrends was an ideal shit magnet.  Bannon was fascinated by my article on Benghazi. Prince and Bannon became fast co-conspirators against Hillary Clinton.

Erik Prince although too young to be a Reaganite, but was a Reagan-era groupie. He had gathered around himself many cast off conservatives ranging from his lawyer Victoria Toensing, Olly North, Paul Behrends, Dana Rorhabacher and many others. His father Edgar Prince had built and funded conservative organizations like Focus on the Family and supported Bush Sr and Reagan. He had a retro appeal to conservatives and even the mention of his company name Blackwater would trigger endless arguments among right and left wingers.

Prince also had a burning hatred for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who he publicly blames for singlehandedly disassembled and destroying Prince’s Blackwater business legacy. A business built on working for the State Department providing armed guards, aircraft and vehicles in Iraq under Bush Jr, and then destroyed when President Obama and what would have been his new boss, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came into power

Prince tends to minimize the bloody murders by his employees in Nissour Square as the reason for his company’s demise. Clinton not only took away Prince’s billion-dollar source of income but had 7 federal agencies on his tail until Prince was forced to sell all his contracting businesses and move to Abu Dhabi in 2010. So with the idea that a Republican would return to office, Prince and the Reaganite gaggle literally appeared at Trump’s doorstep waiting down at the bar until summoned up the elevator.

Once the Mercer family and Trump installed Breitbart firebrand and Benghazi basher Steve Bannon in August of 2016, big and little donor money began to flow. Reagan political dinosaur Paul Manafort and Trump’s tower tenant had been running Trump’s campaign for free since March 29, but although he had hitched the Republican money wagon to Trump’s campaign, it was quickly discovered he had other agendas. On July 24, 2016, ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos asked Manafort “Are there any ties between Mr. Trump, you or your campaign and Putin and his regime?” on ABC’s “This Week” Manafort replied”No, there are not, It’s absurd and there’s no basis to it.”

Manafort held out as long as he could but when it was clear that Trump was cutting him loose, he flipped.

Paul Manafort would be slammed to the curb hard by Robert Mueller. First put on trial for laundering millions of dollars from his political work in Ukraine with any reference to Trump and the campaign omitted. Manafort went down hard. He was acting a second trial and threw in the towel. All part of the surgical dissection of connective tissue by Mueller.

The Mueller prosecution may deftly sidestep Clinton Dirt, Russians and Trump and go directly to the heart of the matter. Money laundering. According to his business partner, Prince is said to have been paid $13 million a month by the UAE for his arms length Reflex Response contract in cash. Paid in newly minted, 100 dollar bills banded and sequential. Paul Manafort is accused of moving millions from his work in the Ukraine, and Michael Cohen is going to go on trial for hustling millions for access to Trump. All of them hoped Trump would give them top cover. None received it.

As former Trump advisor and insider Steve Bannon is quoted to have said, “this is all about money laundering”.

In Michael Wolf’s book Fire and Fury,  Bannon is said to have said about , “Their (Mueller’s) path to fucking Trump goes right through Paul Manafort, Don Jr. and Jared Kushner. “It goes through Deutsche Bank and all the Kushner stuff,”

It’s not clear why Trump chose Reagan-era archival villians and political operatives like Roger Stone and his former partner Paul Manafort formerly partners in Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly were dusted off and put to work getting Trump elected. Stone had always considered Trump an ideal candidate for President and boasted about his skill at crafting falsehoods and dirty tricks. Manafort had just spent a few years working Pro-Russian Ukrainian politics. Everyone seemed old, in exile and burnt, everyone brought baggage. Trump didn’t seem to care.

They bragged of their lobbying work for dictators and warlords under President Reagan and they kept busy. Manafort’s work in the Ukraine kept him busy and well heeled, something he had done for a variety of dark horses. He is famous for turning Maoist warlords like Angola’s Joseph Savimbi into U.S. backed freedom fighters is not easy, but in a world where image is everything it didn’t much to fool the media. Roger Stone kept insisting that Trump could be President, some thought that endorsement would actually hurt Trump’s chances.. After four months putting together a political machine, Manafort was ultimately fired as was Stone after a number of “two-martini tweets” as Stone calls them.

Eventually when the media began to research his inner circle’s missteps, Trump would methodically throw each of them down the media well, hoping their baggage would drown them.

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Next Part Three