Thunder – Historic Conspiracy 

The Trump Administration – in an act of courage and overdue accountability – is opening what may be the biggest conspiracy investigation since WACO, JFK’s assassination, perhaps ever. They are examining evidence of a grand conspiracy – which may go to a grand jury – involving Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Brennan, James Comey, and second-tier Democrat players.

The Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, just released more than 100 pages of emails, memos, and other records describing a “conspiracy to subvert President Trump’s 2016 victory.”

As a former federal litigator, U.S. Court of Appeals clerk, Reagan White House staffer, and oversight counsel to the U.S. House, let me predict: This is not a run-of-the-mill, everyday investigation.

This investigation will – as the evidence is reexamined – almost certainly produce indictments.

Already a freshly refocused FBI is taking a closer look at actions of John Brennan, onetime communist head of the CIA, and James Comey, who steps on his anatomy as much as words, and draws threats against Trump in the sand, Inspector Clouseau’s boss in the flesh.

Where this investigation goes, now that it is green-lighted, is hard to say. But it will range across early accusations, that bogus Steele dossier, Clinton’s campaign’s dirty tricks, attacks, and destruction of evidence intended to defeat Trump, then falsely link him to Russia, followed by Obama-Biden-FBI push to discredit the President, a manufactured basis for special prosecution.

But it will go far beyond that. This investigation re-tolls the statute of limitations, allowing crimes to be prosecuted against potentially criminal actors who thought they had outrun the clock, only they have not.

False allegations against Trump that implied CIA and FBI confirmation of meaningful Russian interference in the 2016 election appear incontrovertibly tied to the Obama White House, if not Obama, Clinton, Brennan, Comey, and others personally, bound up in an alleged conspiracy.

To this, add the further conspiracy – and misused power – which go back to the Biden White House, Justice Department, and other federal officials who tried to push “lawfare,” the intentional misuse of coercive federal powers to jail a political opponent, or bankrupt him, or keep him from office.

The potential criminal targets here range from state and federal prosecutors like Jack Smith to planning by the Pelosi Speakership and others around her, to abuse federal laws and coordinate with the incoming Biden White House to constitutionally bar Trump from serving.

The scope of this conspiracy investigation is broad, timeline long, and potential for success high. The need for this investigation is also high – to restore trust in our federal government, when the specter of genuine and “treasonous” public corruption is so real.

Republics, at the federal and state level, are fragile, easily undone by uncorrected public corruption. This bold move, by genuine leaders, is likely to involve the Department of Justice, perhaps also some state-level leaders.

One footnote: Investigating a conspiracy to deceive, abuse power, and commit fraud – whether federal or state, in lawfare or contracting – is essential. Public corruption, which I have fought all over the world, must be investigated, ferreted out, identified, and methodically punished.

As a former federal investigator, my impression is that this conspiracy investigation will be huge, historic; I hear thunder in the rails. Here is the other shoe. State-level corruption is just as corrosive, and must be met the same way. If I become the next Governor of Maine…rocks will be turned.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).