Here's what I think after about 12 hours of this nonsense.

1) Russians ratfcked the 2016 election, and they were very good at it, and their motive was to put Donald Trump is in the White House.

2) Donald Trump is in the White House and he doesn't care what the Russians did to ratfck the 2016 election.

3) The Russians are prepared to do it again, and they are still very good at it, and their motive is to keep Donald Trump is in the White House, and he doesn't care what the Russians will do to ratfck the 2020 election.

To me, anyway, a lot of everything else is predictable performance. On close reading, for example, William Barr's summary is sieve. One of the first big holes was first spotted by the redoubtable Marcy Wheeler at her blog. From the Barr summary:



The Special Counsel's investigation determined that there were two main Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. The first involved attempts by a Russian organization, the Internet Research Agency (IRA), to conduct disinformation and social media operations in the United States designed to sow social discord, eventually with the aim of interfering with the election. As noted above, the Special Counsel did not find that any U.S. person or Trump campaign official or associate conspired or knowingly coordinated with the IRA in its efforts, although the Special Counsel brought criminal charges against a number of Russian nationals and entities in connection with these activities.



Barr leaves his home in McLean, Virginia on Sunday. Win McNamee Getty Images

The second element involved the Russian government's efforts to conduct computer hacking operations designed to gather and disseminate information to influence the election. The Special Counsel found that Russian government actors successfully hacked into computers and obtained emails from persons affiliated with the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party organizations, and publicly disseminated those materials through various intermediaries, including WikiLeaks. Based on these activities, the Special Counsel brought criminal charges against a number of Russian military officers for conspiring to hack into computers in the United States for purposes of influencing the election. But as noted above, the Special Counsel did not find that the Trump campaign, or anyone associated with it, conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in these efforts, despite multiple offers from Russian-affiliated individuals to assist the Trump campaign.



This is a well-barbered conclusion. It depends on the belief that the Russian government and the various criminal oligarchs and Volga Bagmen operate independently of each other, which is just silly.

William Barr Getty Images

In addition, Barr's persiflage about Russians and the Trump campaign papers over the fact that there's already one American who took a deal from Robert Mueller's prosecutors for his dealings with the Volga bagmen and the Russian ratfckers. From Vox:

The charges against Richard Pinedo of Santa Paula, California, state that he sold bank account numbers created using the stolen identities of US citizens to people or entities outside of the United States. The Russian groups indicted by Mueller used social media posts, online ads, and rallies in the US to create propaganda efforts “primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump,” according to Mueller’s other indictment released Friday. Pinedo’s charges appear related to that activity.

Mikhail Svetlov Getty Images

As part of his plea deal, Pinedo has agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation. While the precise implications of Pinedo’s plea agreement were not immediately clear, the federal grand jury indictment against the Russians notably alleged that they had used the stolen identities of US citizens as part of their election interference campaign.

So, again, these are the things I know for sure as this week begins and they are things that I knew before anything happened over the weekend.

1) Russians ratfcked the 2016 election, and they were very good at it, and their motive was to put Donald Trump is in the White House.

2) Donald Trump is in the White House and he doesn't care what the Russians did to ratfck the 2016 election.

3) The Russians are prepared to do it again, and they are still very good at it, and their motive is to keep Donald Trump is in the White House, and he doesn't care what the Russians will do to ratfck the 2020 election.

And one more thing: this is what the president* said on the subject while standing next to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last July.

As you know, the concept of that came up perhaps a little before, but it came out as a reason why the Democrats lost an election, which frankly, they should have been able to win, because the electoral college is much more advantageous for Democrats, as you know, than it is to Republicans. We won the electoral college by a lot. 306 to 223, I believe. That was a well-fought battle. We did a great job. Frankly, I’m going to let the president speak to the second part of your question.

But, just to say it one time again and I say it all the time, there was no collusion. I didn’t know the president. There was nobody to colluded with. There was no collusion with the campaign. Every time you hear all of these 12 and 14 — it’s stuff that has nothing to do — and frankly, they admit, these are not people involved in the campaign. But to the average reader out there, they are saying, well maybe that does. It doesn’t. Even the people involved, some perhaps told mis-stories. In one case the FBI said there was no lie. There was no lie. Somebody else said there was. We ran a brilliant campaign. And that’s why I’m president. Thank you.

And that's where it stands.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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