Yesterday the President of the United States pardoned, among others, the first Trump campaign member to plead "guilty" in the Mueller Russia investigation: George Papadopoulos. From 2016 onwards, the most powerful figures in the most powerful surveillance agencies on earth dedicated themselves to subverting, first, the ruling party's principal political opponent and, then, the duly elected head of government and his administration. None of them will pay a price; some of them are still in power, and some of them will return to power in the weeks ahead.
Meanwhile, a presidential candidate compromised by a Chinese honey trap continues to sit on the House Intelligence Committee - and America's "newspaper of record" has made not a single mention of the story. Trump has failed to drain the swamp, and the swamp has come roaring back swampier than ever to swamp even the most basic definition of a free society: a fair election.
I became interested in George Papadopoulos after watching multiple three-minute telly hits with him and always wanting to know more. So I figured, after a year or more of waiting, that I might as well interview him myself. We're re-running this two-part interview today to mark his pardon - a pardon that should never have been necessary if this country had a real federal "justice" system.
There were two reasons I was intrigued - first of all, because (as I've written before) young Papadopoulos seemed to me to be obviously the "mark" of multiple high-level well-connected figures from America, Britain, Italy, Australia and elsewhere, but also because several of those persons such as Boris Johnson and Alexander Downer were known to me personally. George Papadopoulos eventually set down his account of what happened these last five years of his life in his book called Deep State Target.
As you'll hear, Papadopoulos and his wife paid a huge personal price for the Deep State's need to make an example of him. We begin where George's story begins - with a young Beltway think-tank wonk watching an unlikely presidential candidate descend an elevator in a Fifth Avenue skyscraper. Click below to watch:
In Part Two those seeking to entrap a junior Trump campaign staffer go through every dangle in the book from lots of cash to exotic honeypots. Then comes Robert Mueller, and prison - and the terrible personal cost to George and his wife, as, following an aggressive FBI interrogation, she loses their unborn child:
If you want to know more about how "Crossfire Hurricane" got cooked up, George's book is available at Amazon.
Among the benefits of Mark Steyn Club membership is that you can enjoy The Mark Steyn Show in any medium you desire: video, audio or text. So, if you prefer the show in non-visual form, please log-in to our Audio & Transcripts department. To listen to the above show, simply click here.
The Mark Steyn Show is made possible through the support of members of The Mark Steyn Club. We appreciate that membership is not for everyone, and we're proud to say that, thanks to the Steyn Club, this website now provides more free content than at any time in our eighteen-year history. But, if you're minded to join us, we'd love to have you. What is The Mark Steyn Club? Well, it's a discussion group of lively people on the great questions of our time, it's also an audio Book of the Month Club, and a video poetry circle, and a live music club. We don't (yet) have a clubhouse, but we do have other benefits. And, if you've got some kith or kin who might like the sound of all that and more, we do have a special Christmas Gift Membership. More details here.
