Clinesmith and the Coup: The Four Levels of Media Reaction

A little-noticed event occurred last Friday—little-noticed, that is, if you get your news from the Hoax News media: It was announced that Kevin Clinesmith would plead guilty to falsifying a document in the “Muh Russia” investigation in order to get a FISA warrant on Carter Page. Just today, he did plead guilty in court, albeit with some "spin" we can get into at another time. While perhaps not the cause for lighting off this year’s leftover Fourth of July firecracker stash, it was significant, nonetheless.

Finally, after four years, the Department of Justice (kudos to prosecutor John Durham and his team), actually got a scalp from among the broad population of Koup Klutz Klansters. Even more significant—and, again, routinely overlooked except in conservative media—Clinesmith wasn’t just “charged.” He pled guilty.

This is significant because there can be no discussion or explanation that he was the target of William Barr’s “witch hunt.” He admitted it. Now all those same people who have as their only fallback for Michael Flynn, “See! He admitted he lied!” have the reverse problem with Clinesmith. He said he did it.

Obviously, the question is why? In the first place, he faced a significant federal sentence. Note: “a” federal sentence. It was likely part of his deal that Clinesmith admitted to only one, which carries a fine of up to $250,000- and five-years’ imprisonment. Had he faced more he might have expected more jail time had he lost the case.

For 99% of the American public, though, the first reaction (if they hear of this plea at all) is “who is Kevin Clinesmith?” As a point of reference, in three years of writing and Tweeting about the Koup, I never even gave him a nickname—and as you know, in any spy operation the operatives have code names. He was the FBI lawyer (mind you, a federal employee of the Justice Department charged with carrying out US laws) who after Donald Trump’s election texted a colleague “viva la resistance,” indicating he would resist carrying out his duties to which he had sworn an oath, called Vice President Mike Pence “stupid,” and referred to Trump’s election as “the tea party on steroids.” Well, maybe he wasn’t entirely wrong.

Yet overall, the giant chirping sound you hear from the Hoax News crickets underscores a profound reality, and, I think, one many conservatives and Trumpers may not have expected. Forcing the Hoax News media to cover the Koup Klutz Klansters will be an uphill battle.

Let me break down, as I see it, the four levels of Klansterism (with four being the lowest and one the highest) and the reaction of the Hoax News to charges and/or guilty pleas from any of them:

1. 1. IGNORE: The prosecution of the lowest level (level 4), that of Clinesmith and perhaps one or two other “privates” in the Koup army, will simply be ignored by CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and others. Clinesmith certainly realized his exposure early on (Nov. 2016) when he wrote, “my god damned name is all over the legal documents investigating his [Trump’s] staff.” In mafioso terms, he was going to be the patsy, the one holding the bag. (In this case, it was a bag of excrement).

While we all fervently hope Clinesmith is just the appetizer for Durham’s nine-course feast of fraudsters, and while we can hope with reasonable expectation that he is singing like John Candy on the “Plains, Trains, and Automobile” bus, the only public ripples that his plea will cause are quite minimal. By itself, his conviction won’t move the needle much.

2. EXPLAIN: Once we get into the “level 3" Koupsters, however, things change. Once a Peter Strzok (a.k.a., Deep Stroke) or Lisa Page (Pageboy) are indicted, Hoax News can no longer do the cricket imitation. Now they are forced to explain why these “small fries” don’t matter, and why they are irrelevant. Don’t get me wrong: this in and of itself would be torture for the vain, pompous Deep Stroke, as demonstrated by his congressional testimony, where he was oh-so-much-smarter than his hapless interrogators. It is precisely this trait, however, that makes Deep Stroke probably the most vulnerable of the entire operation, short of James Comey (Scrotumtoter). His indictment would bring out armies of “experts” and commentators on MSNBC and CNN to tell the public why he has nothing to do with the “Muh Russia” investigation and that all is well on the Titanic.

1. 3. ATTACK: This Hoax News reaction will be reserved for the level 2 members of the Koup Klutz Klan, including Bill Priestap (High Priest) and Andrew McCabe (McCabre). Now you are at senior administrative levels; their activities cannot just be explained away as “rogue” actions of subordinates.

      Andrew McCabe, then acting FBI director, testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on May 11, 2017.

      Most importantly, if and when one of these level 3 Klansters gets the Durham treatment, without question the level 1 dons are in big trouble. Now you would have direct, in-meeting knowledge and personal testimony of not only what was written down, but the . . . wait for it . . . the motivation behind everything. With level 2 flippers, it will be impossible to pull a Hillary (“Well, she did it all, but she didn’t mean to do it all.”) Now we are serious, serious multi-year charges of the type one rarely returns to normal life from.

Once we arrive at this point in the investigation, Hoax News will move from explaining why it’s unimportant to full-scale attack on Durham and Barr. And, no, you haven’t begun to see that yet. We’re talking Kavanaugh-level assaults on their history going back through grade school. We’re going to see Barr’s sanity questioned for even saying in 7^th grade, “Gee, do you think there are really aliens out there?” We will see Durham pilloried as a pig and a woman-hater for using the term “knockers” at a bachelor party. And more. The war on Brett Kavanaugh (code name Choir Boy) will be as the Falklands was to the Nazis’ invasion of the Soviet Union. No quarter. No prisoners.

1. 4. PANIC: There is great news if we see these attacks on Durham and Barr, because if we get that far, it will mean the level 1 caudillos are actually within range. These include John Brennan (Brennanskie), James Clapper (The Clap), the aforementioned Scrotumtoter (Comey), and their “Meester Beeegs,” Loretta Lynch (Lynchmob) and Barack Hussein Obama (Zero). Again, I don’t think Durham will come anywhere close to the tier 1 Koupsters, and that we’ll find the investigation wrapping up somewhere around level 2. But if it goes to this level, Hoax News will be in full-blown panic. Because the meaning will be profound: the very top of the Deep State is now under fire.

And it will mean something, that to them is even more important:

They’re next.

Larry Schweikart is the co-author with Michael Allen of the New York Times #1 bestseller, A Patriot’s History of the United States, author of Reagan: The American President, and the founder of the Wild World of History website that features US and World History curricula for high schoolers/homeschoolers including video lessons (www.wildworldofhistory.com).