Book Review: The Plot Against the President, by Lee Smith

Book Review: The Plot Against the President, by Lee Smith

When the history of President Donald Trump’s administration is written, perhaps one of the biggest ironies is that the man most responsible for toppling the #Resistance comes from the state that is the center of the anti-Trump movement.

The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History was written by investigative journalist Lee Smith and covers the work of Nunes (CA-22), former head of the House Intelligence Committee, and his team of lawyers and researchers to expose the coup against the President.

In his masterful analysis, Smith takes us on a chronological journey of how “protodossiers” were created, which eventually morphed into the infamous Steele Dossier, complete with Russian prostitutes. Originally, the Russia connection was designed to give the Hillary Clinton campaign an escape hatch, in case her emails were revealed to contain embarrassing information.

However, when Trump began naming his foreign policy team (i.e., General Michael Flynn, Carter Page, and George Papadopoulous), the hoaxes presented in the dossier were used to create a counterespionage campaign that was to remain completely hidden from the American public. The actions, real or not, of Trump’s team would be used as an excuse to spy on his campaign.

The effort to elect Clinton then morphed into the coup against Trump after the shocking result of election night 2016.  High ranking Obama-appointed officials decided that American voters had made a mistake, so the administration set into place the mechanism to remove Trump from office before he was inaugurated.

Smith’s work is an outstanding, page-turning read that clarifies the tactics that the deep state plotters use. In a nutshell, information is leaked to the media or people are set-up (like General Flynn), the material is then used for further investigation that is then offered to the media. The press dutifully presents the deep state script, without further investigation or independent analysis.

There are so many intriguing passages in The Plot Against the President, I hardly know what to share. Something that captured my attention was the “insurance policy” referenced between Peter Strzok (former Chief of the Counterespionage Section who led the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server) and his coworker and mistress Lisa Page (FBI attorney).

According to Nunes, the “insurance policy” that Strzok and Page texted about, the issue they’d discussed in McCabe’s office, was not simply the operation against Trump that they planned to roll into a coup in the event he was elected.

“It has a deeper meaning, it’s more specific that that,” he says. “It’s what else they did to get the FISA, to ensure they got the warrant on Page. It’s as bad or worse than using the dossier. It’s another thing they hid as part of a counterintelligence investigation.”

“What did they do?” Nunes spreads his arms in the air. “Something we hope to have declassified. Something the American public should know about.”

A wonderful aspect of Smith’s book is that he also covers the Nunes team, including his determined and savvy aid, Kash Patel.

How did Carter Page know this? #MAGA pic.twitter.com/qMm1Q61f2k

— Mr Dirt (@MyBrothers111) November 8, 2019

Perhaps Patel’s biggest contribution was focusing on documentation instead of interviews to track down how Crossfire Hurricane began. The Nunes aid aptly summarized the FBI shenanigans during the campaign:

“Comey had both presidential candidates under investigation. That’s J. Edgar Hoover style.” —Kash Patel. pic.twitter.com/Fz7YCGlEIc

— Wayne Sida (@neurosidafex) November 6, 2019

For their efforts, Nunes, Patel and other members of the team have been targeted for deep state harassment. The incidents escalated once the Nunes Memo was released in Feb. 2018.

“They started to target my wife and the rest of my family,” says Nunes.

Activists filed a California Public Records Act request for the emails of his wife, an elementary school teacher. She was targeted on social media,and after her contact information was published, they sent her harassing emails. They were doxxing teachers and administrators at the school and said that Mrs. Nunes was teaching racism and bigotry.

In conclusion: I give this book 5 stars out of 5. It is a library-essential for anyone who is interested in learning (or remembering) how the coup began and progressed. It would also be an exceptional reference once all the reports are released and Durham’s indictments are revealed (hopefully). The Plot Against the President will also make a wonderful Christmas/Chanukah gift this year.

It has become quite clear that our press can no longer be trusted to report any aspect of the news, not even the weather. We must support the work of investigators like Lee Smith if we want to learn the complete, unredacted truth.

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