On July 11, 2005, the FBI archives released a total of 165 files consisting of over 17,000 pages that founding director J. Edgar Hoover kept in his private office rather than with other documents in the agency’s custody.  Only two people, Hoover and his secretary Helen Gandy had access to these files.  In November 2011, Washington Post reporter Kenneth Ackerman explained how Hoover used the information in these files to challenge those he saw as a threat to his tenure or his view of America.

Hoover built his FBI files into an intimidating weapon, not just for fighting crime but also for bullying government officials and critics and destroying careers. The files covered a dizzying kaleidoscope — Supreme Court justices such as Louis Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter, movie stars Mary Pickford and Marilyn Monroe, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, physicist Albert Einstein, Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III, among others — often replete with unconfirmed gossip about private sex lives and radical ties.

I thought about Hoover’s unique ability to “blackmail” potential critics in light of three seemingly unrelated news stories over the past 24 hours.

• A story that Jerry Falwell, Jr, evangelical leader and president of Liberty University, and his wife were part of a joint business venture with a pool attendant after meeting him during a 2012 stay at the Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami Beach.
• The announcement that Russian national Maria Butina would plead guilty to being an unregistered foreign agent and would cooperate with federal authorities concerning her interactions with the NRA, various Republican officials and Russian officials.
• Congressional Republicans such as Senators Orrin Hatch (UT), John Kennedy (LA), Paul Rand (KY) and Chuck Grassley (IA) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy falling all over each other to declare Donald Trump’s directing hush money to alleged mistresses was no big deal.  Just one more example of what can only be called the GOP Cricket Brigade.

Though as yet unsubstantiated, it has been reported that the relationship between pool boy Giancarlo Granda and the Falwells may have been about more than business.   Why is this important?  According to BuzzFeed News:

Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen helped arrange Falwell Jr.’s endorsement of Trump in January 2016.  According to a separate source with knowledge of Trump’s campaign, Cohen was so confident in Falwell Jr.’s support that he and Trump assured others, even before Trump announced his candidacy, that Falwell Jr. would issue an endorsement.

Which brings us to the Butina/NRA story.  In the draft plea filing, obtained by ABC News, Butina admits she “sought to establish unofficial lines of communication with Americans having power and influence over US politics. Butina sought to use those unofficial lines of communication for the benefit of the Russia Federation.”  Presenting herself as one of the founders of a Russian version of the NRA “Right to Bear Arms,” she curried favor with the NRA as a way to gain access to influential conservatives.

As former CIA operative Malcolm Nance constantly reminds us, “Coincidences take a lot of planning.”  So it should come as no surprise:

• The NRA endorsed Trump in May 2016, earlier than it had EVER endorsed a Republican candidate for president.
• The NRA spent $30.3 million in support of Trump in 2016 compared to $12.5 million for Mitt Romney in 2012.
• In 2016, the NRA contributed $6.3 million to the campaign of Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) who was chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
• Ninety-nine percent of all NRA contributions in 2016 went to Republicans.

I know, the NRA has always been a high roller when it comes to campaign spending.  However, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, NRA “overall spending surged by more than $100 million in 2016, surpassing any previous annual NRA spending totals on record.”

Bill Maher has a segment on his HBO program Real Time called, “I don’t know it for a fact, but I just know it’s true.”  I don’t know for a fact the extra $100 million in 2016 was Russian money laundered through the NRA to support Trump and GOP congressional candidates, but I just know it’s more than possible.  And a la J. Edgar Hoover, if Trump and Cohen were aware of it, that is a pretty powerful incentive for GOP senators and representatives to tow the Trump line.

If this is correct, tomorrow, when Butina pleads guilty in federal court, could be a bad day for the Republican party and several GOP members of Congress based on what is already documented.  For example, after hosting several NRA officials in Moscow in 2016, Butina sent the following message to her Russian handler. “We should let them express their gratitude now, we will put pressure on them later.” (Source: ABC News)

Additionally, Butina had an on-going personal relationship with Paul Erickson, a South Dakota Republican operative who had been active in both the Romney and Trump campaigns.  In October 2016, Erickson emailed, “I’ve been involved in securing a VERY private line of communication between the Kremlin and key [unnamed political party] leaders through, of all conduits, the [unnamed gun-rights organization].”  And an FBI raid of Erikson’s home produced a hand-written note. “How to respond to FSB offer of employment?”  FYI, the FSB is the Russian CIA.

All this before we have any knowledge of what the FBI retrieved when it raided Cohen’s offices, home and temporary residence.  As I have noted on numerous occasions, if this were the story line in a spy novel, it would be panned for lacking an ounce of plausibility.  But in TrumpWorld, it’s called Tuesday.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP