Many media figures have swallowed whole, without evidence, a conspiracy theory that Donald Trump became president by treasonously colluding with Russia to steal the 2016 election from its rightful owner, Hillary Clinton. The information operation that pushed this story turned out to have been secretly developed and funded by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, a fact uncovered only through the tenacious digging of Republicans on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the face of major opposition from the media and Democrats on the committee. . .

The latest questionably sourced information in support of this dramatic tale that opponents of Trump cling to in order to delegitimize the results of the 2016 election is that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort secretly met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2013, 2015 and, ominously, in spring of 2016, just as the Trump campaign was heating up. Assange is holed up in London at the Ecuadorian embassy there and published the hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton aide John Podesta.

Even on first read the story seemed difficult to believe. It was based on anonymous sources so non-descript that they could be any of literally millions of people. A document from Ecuador’s Senain intelligence agency allegedly claimed a “Manaford” had visited Assange along with “Russians.” The story mentioned the discredited dossier that journalists wrote about and intelligence agencies used to secure wiretaps on Trump associates despite the failure to verify its claims. . .

It’s been seven and a half months, for instance, since McClatchy’s Peter Stone and Greg Gordon claimed, without evidence, that the special counsel had the goods showing that Trump attorney Michael Cohen had gone to Prague to collude with Russia in the run-up to the 2016 election. This was a key fact in the dossier and Cohen claimed it was a bald-faced lie. Even after he agreed to cooperate with the feds, he claimed it was a lie. In the seven and a half months since McClatchy ran that “bombshell” story that nearly everyone fell for, literally no one has been able to corroborate the story. . .

Weekly Standard editor at large Bill Kristol tweeted, “What campaign chair hasn’t held secret talks with Julian Assange in the Ecuadoran embassy in London?” He later deleted the tweet without explanation. (Read more from “Manafort/Assange Drama Proves Media Will Buy Any Russia Conspiracy Story, No Matter Its Flaws” HERE)

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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said during a speech last week that President Donald Trump is close to declassifying documents pertaining to the Trump-Russia investigation.

Nunes, a California Republican, also warned that Democrats and journalists are likely to be “frightened” by the information contained in the warrants that were sought under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Nunes made the comments Thursday at an event hosted by the Center for Security Policy, where he informed his listeners that the FISA court warrants the president might soon declassify would probably be bad news for Democrats.

Should this declassification occur, it would come months after a July document release by the Justice Department that proved the multiple FISA court warrants for surveillance of Trump campaign member Carter Page leaned heavily on information compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele.

That dossier was later found to be compromised, which cast doubt to be cast on the process that allowed it to be considered as evidence. Republicans accused the FBI of manipulating the use of FISA after it was found the dossier had been financed by Democrats and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that Nunes’ speech was cause for hope among conservatives, as he informed his audience that Democrats likely have a lot to be nervous about.

Nunes noted that Democrats have largely gone silent on the issue of the FISA documents since parts of them were released to the public.

“And you know why? Because I think they’re going to be frightened by what you see,” he said.

“We knew that the dossier, the dirt, and the fake news stories made up the bulk of the FISA,” Nunes said.

“We thought that would be enough to finally get the mainstream news media to actually engage in this process and see that something had gone wrong,” he noted.

“But what did they do? They buried it. They buried it, and switched the story to say ‘Oh no, no, no, it was actually somebody else’ — there were all sorts of deflections.”

Nunes’ prediction caused a stir on social media.

Nunes said the declassification of these documents could shed light on Obama-era FBI and Justice Department improprieties, which could help significantly improve Republican’s chances in the midterm elections.

“It’s not just going to be economic growth and running on the economy,” he said. “It’s also going to be about what the other side did to play dirty, to dirty up a (presidential) campaign — but not do it through campaign tactics, but do it by corrupting the FBI and the DOJ.”

Nunes’ assessment of the current political climate is that it’s leaning in a direction that’s good for Republicans.

“The reason that they have this fight … the reason that they’re actually willing to corrupt the FBI and the DOJ — they’re doing it because we’re winning, folks,” Nunes said.

“We’re winning and I think we have a good chance to win this fall if we keep the faith, stay on message, and help out our colleagues.” (For more from the author of “Nunes Warns Democrats Will Be ‘Frightened’ by Declassified Trump-Russia Documents” please click HERE)

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