The bottom line

Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.

Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin’s version of J. Edgar Hoover.

[T]he [Justice D]epartment … sided with Mr. Flynn’s defense team, which has argued that officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation tried to set him up …

Justice Department to Drop Case Against Michael Flynn

1. Michaelf Flynn had a more-than-distinguished military career.
2. I hoped that Michael Flynn would be one of the “adults in the room” with Trump.
3. Michael Flynn lied to the FBI.
4. Michael Flynn lied to Mike Pence.
5. Donald Trump fired Michael Flynn for lying to Pence (or for getting caught at it by the Washington Post)
6. Michael Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI.
7. Michael Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI. This paragraph is not a typo.
8. The FBI did not “entrap” Michael Flynn.
9. What the FBI did do to Michael Flynn is what it does to many other people every day: go in, play dumb, ask a question that they already know the answer to but that is embarrassing, and then prosecute the lie — or call forgetfulness a lie, or whatever you have to do to make an inaccurate answer criminal. Do not talk to the FBI!
10. Men and women regularly are convicted or plead guilty after this FBI ploy. Remember Martha Stewart?
11. The dropping of charges against Michael Flynn is a sweetheart deal that very few others get.
12. The Motion to Dismiss wasn’t signed by the prosecutors involved in the case, as is customary, but by interim Washington U.S. Attorney Timothy Shea, a former aide to Attorney General William Barr.
13. It’s all awfully fishy, but I do not begrudge Michael Flynn his freedom. I begrudge the imprisonment of hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of others.

So: What if the Wall Street Journal, which has been echoing Trump without saying “hoax,” is right; that Obama, the FBI, James Comey, Hillary Clinton, Fusion GPS, Michael Steele, Robert Mueller and Satan from the Pit of Hell have all been engaging in a big fraud to bring down Trump, ab initio?

I don’t know what to think now about whether Trump was the target of a massive conspiracy. And it just kills me because Steve Bannon planned to “flood the zone with shit” to create epistemic uncertainty. And I feel as if the Wall Street Journal opinion pages are adding to that flood.

And why do I need to decide?

So (same premise as before): Does that make Trump fit to govern?

The question should answer itself — though I’m reminded of Lindsey Graham’s righteous outburst in the Kavanaugh hearings: “God, you people will do anything for power, and I hope to hell you never get it!”