Ever since the riot in the US Capitol on January 6, the Democrats and their media fluffers have tried every way possible to tie President Trump and the GOP directly to the rioters. The idiot impeachment of President Trump AFTER he left office was predicated on the idea that remarks made by President Trump at a rally at the other end of the National Mall were the cause of the riot, never mind that Capitol security was breached 20 minutes before the inciting words were uttered. Not only have the Democrats and the media been harping on this, but so have the VichyCons at National Review, the Bulwark boys, the pedophile wing of the NeverTrump movement, and others.

This is the state of play right now. A young man working in a political position at the State Department participated in the Capitol riot. He’s being charged with assault, among other things.

Federico Klein, the ex-State Dept aide arrested Thurs, was charged with assaulting an officer. He was videotaped in a tunnel using a riot shield to keep officers from closing doors. He was still a govt employee w.a top secret security clearance on Jan 6.https://t.co/aQrygXhS9c

— Katie Benner (@ktbenner) March 5, 2021

This is hardly a smoking gun, but Klein worked on the Trump campaign in 2016, so that is about all the connection the New York Times needs to create a dot that can be used to connect President Trump directly to the riot.

Today, we have F.B.I. Finds Contact Between Proud Boys Member and Trump Associate Before Riot.

A rather breathless New York Times reporter spins this yarn:

A member of the far-right nationalist Proud Boys was in communication with a person associated with the White House in the days just before the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

Location, cellular and call record data revealed a call tying a Proud Boys member to the Trump White House, the official said. The F.B.I. has not determined what they discussed, and the official would not reveal the names of either party.
…

The communication between the person associated with the White House and the member of the Proud Boys was discovered in part through data that the F.B.I. obtained from technology and telecommunications companies immediately after the assault.

When I was an IG investigator, this is what we called a “so what?” allegation. Let’s assume it is true. So what? Unless you have some evidence that what they discussed was illegal, then a telephone call is constitutionally protected communications.

Here are some interesting points about the report.

The reporter tries to do “guilt by association” with the Proud Boys as though talking to them is somehow evidence of wrong-doing. It isn’t. The Proud Boys organization does not seem to have been involved in the Capitol riot though some people associated with them have been. The alleged leader of the group, Ethan Nordean, has been arrested. Still, he was released from custody on his own recognizance after a federal magistrate. Then a federal district judge basically laughed at the government’s case and reasons for keeping him locked up (read In Granting Bail DC Judge Questions Strength of Government’s “Riot” Evidence Against Proud Boys Leader Ethan Nordean). This is certainly not how you treat members of a “seditious conspiracy” or “armed insurrection.”

Note, too, that the Proud Boys are not referred to as a “white supremacist” or  “white nationalist” group, which was all the rage in the media last summer. Now they are a “far-right nationalist” group…I wonder if they are recruiting?

The most interesting thing is that while the headline blares “Trump associate,” the story never goes there. It consistently says “person associated with the White House.” The article spends most of its time explaining that the Proud Boy leader is NOT Enrique Tarrio (which I always thought was a crazy name for a white supremacist), and the “person associated with the White House” is not Roger Stone.

Get used to this. Every day that goes by, another piece of the January 6 narrative gets demolished. There were no kill squads. There were no people carrying zip ties to capture Congress-critters. No police officer was killed by demonstrators. But as fast as those allegations are shown to be blatant lies, the media has to come up with replacement stories to maintain the fraud that President Trump was involved in the creating the Capitol riot. They have to do that because instead of President Trump slinking away to Mar-A-Lago, he’s returning to politics, and he is immensely popular with the GOP base. Unless they can make him radioactive, a fired-up and angry Trump on the campaign trail in 2022 guarantees the Democrats lose their tenuous grip on the House and Senate, and suddenly, Sundown Joe’s presidency becomes a lot more fun.