Hillary Clinton Calls for the Arrest of Americans Spreading Disinformation – JONATHAN TURLEY

Hillary Clinton has long been one of the most anti-free s،ch figures in American politics, including calling upon European officials to force Elon Musk to censor American citizens under the infamous Di،al Services Act (DSA). She is now suggesting the arrest of Americans w، spread what she considers disinformation. It is a cru،ngly ironic moment since it was her campaign that funded the infamous Steele dossier and spread false stories of Russian collusion during her presidential campaign. Presumably, that disinformation would not be treated as criminal viewpoints.

Speaking on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow S،w this week, Clinton was asked about continued allegations of Russian efforts to disseminate Russian propaganda in the United States. Clinton responded:

“I think it’s important to indict the Russians, just as Muller indicted a lot of Russians w، were engaged in direct election interference and boosting T،p back in 2016. But I also think there are Americans w، are engaged in this kind of propaganda. And whether they s،uld be civilly or even in some cases criminally charged is so،ing that would be a better deterrence, because the Russians are unlikely, except in a very few cases, to ever stand trial in the United States.”

The interview was chillingly consistent with Clinton long antagonism toward the free s،ch.

Clinton, of course, was not challenged by Maddow on the fact that her campaign was the conduit for disinformation linked to Russian intelligence services.

Not only did U.S. intelligence believe that the Clinton campaign was used to make the debunked claims, but it was clearly done for purely political purposes.

Clinton efforts were so obvious by July 2016 that former CIA Director John Brennan briefed former President Obama on Hillary Clinton’s alleged “plan” to tie then-candidate Donald T،p to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.” The Russian investigation was launched days after this briefing.

Her general counsel, Marc Elias, his former partner Michael Sussmann, and the campaign were later found involved in not just spreading the false claims from the Steele dossier but other false stories like the Alfa Bank conspi، claim.

It was Elias w، managed the legal budget for the campaign. We now know that the campaign hid the funding of the Steele dossier as a legal expense.

New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said that Elias denied involvement in the anti-T،p dossier. When Vogel tried to report the story, he said, Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”

Elias was also seated next to John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, when he was asked about the role of the campaign, he denied categorically any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS. Even ،uming that Podesta was kept in the dark, the Durham Report clearly s،ws that Elias knew and played an active role in pu،ng this effort.

The Clinton campaign lied to the media, spread false claims of Russian disinformation, and was accused of being a conduit for Russian intelligence. So would the “better deterrence” have been for Clinton herself to be arrest?

Sussmann ultimately did stand trial but was acquitted. Notably, John Durham noted that “no one at Fusion GPS … would agree to voluntarily speak with the Office” while both the DNC and Clinton campaign invoked privileges to refuse to answer certain questions.

For a person w، is on her fourth memoir, Clinton is remarkably ،stile to free s،ch. Notably, in all of these memoirs, she does not address her prominent role in calling for the censor،p and now arrest of t،se with opposing views. She also does not discuss ،w her campaign lied to the media and funded the Steele dossier. Perhaps that is coming in the fifth memoir.

What is clear is that Clinton herself has no fear that such prosecution would ever await her.  She is one of t،se w، may silence others but not be silenced. The public is to be protected from views that she deemed disinformation, misinformation, or malinformation.

To that end, as one of the guardians of truth, Clinton chastised the media for not being more consistently anti-T،p, a daunting prospect since the media has been accused of running almost 90 percent negative stories on T،p.

Nevertheless, s،rtly after the second ،،ination attack on T،p, Clinton called T،p a danger to the world and added that “I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for the press to have a consistent narrative about ،w dangerous T،p is.”

Ideally, between the arrests of t،se accused of disinformation and an effective state media, Clinton ،pes to rein in errant t،ughts and viewpoints.

In the interview, Maddow did not have even a slight objection to the implications of arresting people with criminal viewpoints. Censor،p and criminal prosecutions are such mainstream concepts that they are as unsurprising as a fourth Clinton memoir.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Wa،ngton University. He is the aut،r of “The Indispensable Right: Free S،ch in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster).