According to the Economist, it is rare to hear a spy chief sound insufficiently cynical about the world, but Mr Brennan managed it. Both his premises turn out to be wrong. To hear a shifting cast of Republicans in Congress, conservative media stars and Trump allies tell it, it is not remotely clear that Russia interfered in the election. Polling shows most Republicans and Democrats hold irreconcilable views on something that the former head of the CIA asserts is a settled fact.
Some of the loudest voices in conservative media, including Sean Hannity of Fox News and Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, have peddled a conspiracy theory that the hacking of Democratic Party e-mails during the election might have been the work of a young staffer at the Democratic National Committee, Seth Rich, who was later murdered in what the police suspect was a botched robbery.
Mr Hannity and Mr Gingrich speculated that Mr Rich might have been the victim of a political assassination, citing, among other things, a report by Fox News, which was later retracted. Mr Rich’s parents published an appeal in the Washington Post for people to stop spreading inventions about their son, calling this “unspeakably cruel”. That is a fact on which all should be able to agree. Yet once circulated, conspiracy theories are notoriously hard to knock down. In that sense, Mr Hannity and Mr Gingrich have already done their work.
Some solid points may be grasped amid the murk. There is a bipartisan desire to hear more from Michael Flynn, the former general who briefly served as Mr Trump’s first national security adviser, notably about his contacts with Russian officials. Mr Flynn refused one subpoena from the Senate intelligence committee, pleading his right to avoid self-incrimination. That prompted fresh Senate subpoenas aimed at consultancy businesses that he founded. House subpoenas may be next. If nothing else, lawyers will be busy.
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