So there you have it.xc2xa0

Russiagate, the collective delusion that Donald Trump was secretly a Russian agent aided and abetted by the Kremlin, the topic of uncountable inches of Washington Post and New York Times copy and the entire prime-time lineup of MSNBC, was a dirty trick by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Not just part of it. All of it. One of the most diabolical, successful misinformation campaigns ever concocted.xc2xa0

We already knew that the Steele dossier was garbage. Christopher Steele was paid indirectly by the Clinton campaign to dig up dirt, which he did by turning to other Clinton operatives, laundering every outlandish rumor about Trump he could find into an xe2x80x9cinvestigativexe2x80x9d document.xc2xa0

He shopped it to the FBI, which couldnxe2x80x99t verify his sources or any of his stories, but the agency dragged out the investigation to cast maximum suspicion on the new president. In the meantime, Steele found willing accomplices in the media to push his propaganda. The dupes at BuzzFeed even decided to print the whole pack of lies, with the flimsy rationale of xe2x80x9cWell, why not?xe2x80x9dxc2xa0

We got to the point where New York magazine was running a cover story that was one long piece of fan fiction that Trump was secretly a real-life version of xe2x80x9cThe Americans,xe2x80x9d a sleeper agent now seated in the highest office in the land. The Times and Washington Post won a freaking Pulitzer!xc2xa0

A made-up storyxc2xa0

Now another piece of Russia, Russia, Russia is kaputski. A computer server operated by Trumpxe2x80x99s company was secretly communicating with a Russian firm, so claimed Slate magazine and endless Twitter threads of would-be tech experts.xc2xa0

But as special counsel John Durham outlines in his latest indictment, that was just a story made up by tech executive Rodney Joffe, who desperately wanted a job with the Clinton administration. He hacked Trumpxe2x80x99s servers, cherry-picked privileged Internet data he had access to, and molded it to look like something nefarious.xc2xa0

He was coached by lawyer Michael Sussmann xe2x80x94 who was being paid by the Clinton administration, although he lied about that to investigators. Sussmann goes to the FBI as a xe2x80x9cconcerned citizenxe2x80x9d xe2x80x94 not a xe2x80x9cClinton stoogexe2x80x9d xe2x80x94 to try to get them to bite. The ultimate goal: be able to leak to the Times that Trump is under official investigation.xc2xa0

Durham xe2x80x9cdefinitely showed that the Hillary Clinton campaign directly funded and ordered its lawyers at Perkins Coie to orchestrate a criminal enterprise to fabricate a connection between President Trump and Russia,xe2x80x9d says Kash Patel, the former chief investigator for the House Intelligence Committee.xc2xa0

Beyond outrageousxc2xa0

Of course, Hillary didnxe2x80x99t get what she wanted xe2x80x94 the presidency. But her operatives didnxe2x80x99t stop, going on CNN to give xe2x80x9cvery concernedxe2x80x9d interviews about a theory they knew was bull. All to undermine Trumpxe2x80x99s presidency. It would take three years for the Mueller report to finally put the lie to rest, and wexe2x80x99re now, five years out, at the point where Durham is detailing the full conspiracy.xc2xa0

If this had happened to a Democrat, the press would be losing its mind. A candidate for president weaponized the nationxe2x80x99s Justice Department to pursue an investigation into their political opponent based on what they knew were lies. Americans were wiretapped! Some were entrapped for flimsy claims of perjury. The director of the FBI went into the Oval Office to tell the president that there was a sexual rumor floating around, so that it could be promptly leaked to the media. Outrageous doesnxe2x80x99t cover it. And still no shame from Hillary Clinton and her supporters, because itxe2x80x99s Donald Trump xe2x80x94 anything is fair game to take him down.xc2xa0

All these things wexe2x80x99ve been lectured about over the past four years: Norms being broken, Internet misinformation, perversion of government xe2x80x94 it was all happening. It was the Democrats who were doing it. Think anyone in the left-wing media will notice?