Last week, Special Counsel John Durham released his long-awaited report on the Russia Hoax. I’m not sure we learned anything new, but seeing it in writing from an impeccable source was worth the wait. We learned that President Trump had not colluded with Russia to get elected but that the Clinton campaign had worked hand in glove with the FBI, intelligence officials, and media figures to mainstream the fraudulent Steele Dossier into the national conversation. They then used the false story deliberately created by the US government as a pretense for a series of harassing investigations that had as their sole purpose to hamstring President Trump’s ability to carry out the agenda for which America elected him. In the process, two national newsrooms, those of the New York Times and Washington Post, shared a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on Trump’s collusion with Russia (see Walter Duranty Is Alive and Well and Working at the Washington Post and New York Times).

If you thought any lessons were learned about honesty and integrity through this humiliating self-beclowning, then you really don’t know who you are dealing with.

.@Peggynoonannyc's column obsessing — STILL — about a "Trump-Russia" connection is both hilarious and illustrative of the way in which those in the elite media and political classes fell completely for their own propaganda, originally concocted to explain Trump's victory. (1/5) pic.twitter.com/CkX8jL25A2

— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) May 21, 2023

Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry posted an updated list of 963 US citizens who have been permanently banned from entering Russia. The list has existed for a while, but the Saturday list included 500 additions. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry:

Among them are not only “iconic” figures, including former US President Barack Obama, but also current heads of various levels of executive power, ex-officials like White House curator for combating “Russian disinformation” N. Yankovic, senators and congressmen elected for the first time in the November 2022 elections, experts and employees of “analytical” centers involved in the dissemination of Russophobic attitudes and fakes, as well as heads of military-industrial complex companies, supplying weapons to the regime in Kiev. The attached “list-500” also includes those in the government and law enforcement agencies who are directly involved in the persecution of dissidents in the wake of the so-called “storming of the Capitol”.

The list included senior Biden-appointed officials, Senators Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, soused Nancy Pelosi. In addition, Jen Psaki and Hunter Biden made the list, as did several CNN employees; “comedians” Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Meyers; New York Attorney General Letitia James; Special Counsel Jack Smith; Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; Governors Christine Kotek (OR), Sarah Huckabee Sanders (AR), Maura Healy (MA), Kathleen Hobbs (AZ), and Joshua Shapiro (PA); and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Missing from the list were President Trump, his sons, any member of his former administration other than Pompeo, and Senator Rand Paul, who delayed a vote on Ukraine aid.

Former UN weapons inspector and twice-convicted child molester Scott Ritter was also not on the list, but that is a story for a different day.

Meanwhile in Russia: state TV asked Scott Ritter how to defeat America and Ukraine. He eagerly shared his insights, complained about girls in white skirts who didn't want to be photographed with him in Red Square and begged for Russia to forgive America. https://t.co/cecdLwUJHI

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) May 21, 2023

Striking how Putin is adopting Trump's perceived enemies as his own. The new Russian sanctions list includes people Trump considers adversaries like Letitia James, Brad Raffensperger and the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt even though none has anything to do with Russia policy.

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) May 21, 2023

Russia sanctioning Jack Smith?

And Letitia James?

And Brad Raffensperger?

There’s almost a theme. What could it be. https://t.co/flmdXKejGN

— Pete Strzok (@petestrzok) May 22, 2023

Indeed, I wonder what possible motive Russia would have in selecting particular individuals for inclusion on the “banned” list. Could it be that they know that President Trump, at this moment, is the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination? Do they realize that Trump is favored to win the 2024 election if he faces Joe Biden? Is it possible that they know our political establishment and media are so besotted with the success of the lies they peddled the first time around that, despite having been exposed, they are willing to go back to that well?

On the whole, I think this was a masterful trolling operation by the Russians. Banning people involved in the January 6 persecutions is definitely a high point, though they lost the plot in missing Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. Russia labeling all of Trump’s enemies as persona non grata and the media running with the story has effectively set the stage for Russia Hoax, Part 2.