On Sunday, Lindsey Graham was a guest on CNN’s State of the Union. In my sloth and lethargy, I didn’t cover the appearance for a couple of days. Which is a shame because it was timely and important.

TRANSCRIPT:

BASH: Senator, let’s turn to the bombshell report from “The Washington Post” that Jared Kushner and the Russian ambassador discussed the possibility of setting up secret communications, a channel, with Moscow.

And Evan McMullin, the former Republican staffer who had a brief run for president, he tweeted that the report is — quote — “treasonous activity, whether born of malice, naivete or both.”

Do you see it that way?

GRAHAM: Well, number one, we’re chasing our tails as a nation when it comes to the Russians.

I don’t know who leaked this supposed conversation. But just think about it this way. You have got to ambassador to Russia reporting back to Moscow on an open channel, hey, Jared Kushner is going to move into the embassy.

I don’t trust this story as far as I can throw it.

BASH: In what way? Why don’t you trust it?

GRAHAM: I think it makes no sense that the Russian ambassador would report back to Moscow on a channel that he most likely knows we’re monitoring.

The whole storyline is suspicious. I have never been more concerned and suspicious about all things Russia than I am right now, so I’m not going to jump to the conclusion that Mr. McMullin jumped to.

BASH: So, you think that it is possible that what the ambassador, Kislyak, said to Moscow was on purpose, because he knew that he was being monitored, and — and not accurate?

GRAHAM: That’s a possibility.

Well, look at this way. Apparently, the FBI director intervened in the elections in July 2016 based on a fake e-mail generated by the Russians from the Democrats to the Department of Justice trying to shut down the e-mail investigation of Clinton.

If that was fake, why don’t you think this is fake? I’m not so sure the e-mail that Comey relied upon was fake. But I can tell you this. He never briefed the Congress, the Judiciary Committee about any fake e-mail.

What he told the Intelligence Committee about this e-mail, he never suggested it was fake. So, if he intervened in the election — election based on fake information generated by the Russians, that was an incredibly incompetent thing to do. So I don’t really know who to believe anymore.

There are lots of parts here, so let’s start with the easy one. Evan McMullin is a douchenozzle and should be shunned by adults of every political persuasion. I didn’t understand the appeal during the election and I understand it less and less each day.

Graham’s statement, “I think it makes no sense that the Russian ambassador would report back to Moscow on a channel that he most likely knows we’re monitoring,” is exactly right. Now one of the major purveyors of Trumpo-Russia conspiracy theories, former NSA employee and enthusiastic amateur photographer John Schindler explains the inexplicable by claiming that the NSA broke Russian diplomatic codes

Russians will change ciphers now. Major intel loss there. But the fact that the WH is in bed with Moscow is bigger. https://t.co/QITfj2wtTS

— John Schindler (@20committee) May 29, 2017

To Devil's Advocate this, the fact that #NSA cracked into top RUD was gonna come out in the forthcoming Trump impeachment & trials anyway.

— John Schindler (@20committee) May 29, 2017

RUD = Russian Diplomatic comms. I drop into SIGINTese all too easily. Old spook habits die hard. https://t.co/Nf5yC3ZFgj

— John Schindler (@20committee) May 29, 2017

Supposedly, this leak would be no major deal so long as it hurt Trump even though it would actually put US national security in jeopardy.

But the reality is that it is more likely than not that any communications by Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak allegedly intercepted were sent by means that Kislyak would have known were vulnerable and this begs the question of why that would be so.

The next point Graham made is also significant. Comey seems to have used an email forged by Russian intelligence. The Washington Post reported that Comey had in his possession an email purporting to show active coordination between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the Clinton campaign on the issue of her personal server and mishandling of classified information. Comey’s defenders have laughably claimed that he knew is was fake and he just pretended to act like he believed it because if he told us it was fake he’d have to kill us all. Here Graham makes it very clear that at no time has Comey told the Senate intelligence committee that the email concerning Clinton-Lynch collusion is fake. Leading to the one inescapable conclusion, Comey believed that hoax and acted upon it to interfere with the US election… which sort of makes him a “useful idiot” of Russian intelligence.

I said very early in this ordeal that the driving force is the selective secrecy. Forces for and against Trump are leaking information in a willy-nilly manner to sway the narrative du jour. The Russian collusion nonsense has been investigated for eleven months. Someone needs to have the courage to stand up and reveal what is known, good or bad. To do otherwise is a disservice to the nation.