Our esteemed intelligence community got it spectacularly wrong. So it appears that we have one of two possible explanations:

1) The top people at the DOJ (Loretta Lynch), CIA (John Brennan) and FBI (Andrew McCabe, James Comey and that crowd) were unwitting dupes, easily “played” by Hillary’s henchmen at Fusion GPS because they hated Trump so much. They truly believed that Donald Trump was selling America down the river for Vladimir Putin.

2) The top people at the DOJ (Lynch), CIA (Brennan) and FBI (that crowd) were willing accomplices, knowingly “playing along” with Hillary’s henchmen at Fusion GPS because they hated Trump so much? They deliberately pushed the false narrative that Donald Trump was selling America down the river for Vladimir Putin.

It’s one or the other, and neither is good. Stunningly incompetent or thoroughly corrupt.

They Aren’t Exactly Going on an Apology Tour

As they’re generally sticking to their story instead of sighing with relief after the special counsel found no basis for allegations of Russian conspiracy, I lean strongly towards the second explanation.

If they truly had been played, they would be falling all over themselves to apologize to the American people for the last two years of chaos that resulted from their incompetence. They would celebrate the fact that the highest office in the land hadn’t been compromised by Putin. And they would sincerely apologize to Trump for repeatedly attaching the word “traitor” to his name.

John Brennan did try lamely to say he might have had some “bad intelligence.” Not buying it — not in the context of everything we know. When you go on TV as the former head of the CIA and accuse the President of treason, you’d better be 100 percent sure of your intelligence.

His accusations last August (long after we knew about the serious problems with bias at the FBI) were so outrageous that even Chuck Todd at NBC called him on it: “A lot of people hear the former CIA director accusing the sitting President of the United States of treason — that’s monumental, that’s a monumental accusation.” Brennan doubled down, said he regretted nothing, and defended himself by citing his training as an “intelligence professional.” Even now, he can’t come out and apologize humbly for his terrible accusations against the President.

Maintaining the Charade

Former FBI officials were tossing out similar accusations as recently as a few weeks ago. Hear any apologies coming from them now? And Adam Schiff, who, sadly, chairs the House Intelligence Committee, is doubling down as well. As William McGurn writes for The Wall Street Journal, he sounds like O.J. Simpson resolving to find the real killer.

Even the most partisan among us should celebrate that we don’t have a President who is beholden to the Kremlin.

These people speak from positions — or former positions — of high authority. That is one big reason why, as of Sunday (after the release of the Mueller report and the announcement that no indictments were called for), according to a FOX News poll, 44 percent of Americans still believe the Trump campaign was compromised by Russia. The Democrats can keep this going as long as they keep calling for “the full report!!” That is a sham; they know that grand jury testimony and material that violates the rights of the innocent cannot be released.

And as long as they maintain their charade, acting as if the report hasn’t even been released, that 44 percent will double down as well. Folks, believing doesn’t make it true. It must take a lot of hate to maintain that fiction. After all, even the most partisan among us should celebrate that we don’t have a President who is beholden to the Kremlin.

As for members of the media, who likewise aren’t rushing to microphones to apologize to the President or the public for getting it wrong, John Steele Gordon, author of An Empire of Wealth, has some choice words for them. He gets it exactly right.

Originally published at MikeHuckabee.com. Reprinted with permission.