How Russiagate Dwarfed Watergate and Shattered the Press

Institutional Evil Versus a Botched Break-in

How Russiagate Dwarfed Watergate and Shattered the Press

Subtitle: Institutional Evil Versus a Botched Break-in

By Jim Reynolds | www.reynolds.com

I. From Petty Crime to Perfect Crime

Watergate was a break-in—a stupid, clumsy, third-rate burglary. Nixon didn’t order it, but he helped cover it up, and that was enough to bring him down. Fair enough. But Russiagate? That wasn’t petty. It was calculated, coordinated, and far more dangerous.

A sitting administration used intelligence tools to smear its political opponent. A major political party funded a fake dossier through backchannels. The media laundered leaks. And the result wasn’t just the downfall of a man—it was the erosion of public trust in everything.

Let’s also be clear about what the Watergate burglars were actually after: dirt on Democratic strategy. The target? DNC Chairman Larry O’Brien’s office. The plan? Install wiretaps and photograph documents. The results? Minimal. The bugs didn’t work, and any papers captured were largely worthless. It was amateur hour.

Russiagate, by contrast, wasn’t about trying and failing to steal information. It was about manufacturing it.

II. Meet the Architects

Hillary Clinton greenlit the Steele Dossier.
James Comey legitimized it.
John Brennan seeded it.
Clapper nodded.
Fusion GPS assembled the mess.
Michael Sussmann delivered it to the FBI while pretending to be neutral.
And Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy, put his name on a document so riddled with falsehoods it wouldn’t pass a Reddit fact-check.

They all knew it was garbage. And they used it anyway.

III. When the Press Became the Plot

CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times—they didn’t just run with the lie. They embedded with it. They built prime-time careers on it. Rachel Maddow went full conspiracy preacher. The Post won Pulitzers for fiction. CNN sent a camera crew to film a pre-dawn raid on Roger Stone’s house. Not because it was newsworthy—but because they were tipped off.

No one asked: "How did we get here?" They just said: "Trump is a Russian agent." For years.

IV. The Real Collusion

It wasn’t between Trump and Moscow. It was between Obama’s DOJ, Clinton’s campaign, and a press corps desperate to stop a man they hated. They couldn’t believe he won. So they created the reason.

FISA warrants were issued based on lies.
Michael Flynn was ambushed.
Jeff Sessions was neutralized.
Mueller was sent in as the cleanup crew—with no crime to investigate, but two years to suggest otherwise.

V. The Press Learns to Forget

When the whole thing collapsed—when the IG report, the Durham report, and congressional testimony confirmed the setup—the media didn’t apologize. They memory-holed it.

Unlike Watergate, where every detail was replayed ad nauseam, Russiagate’s collapse was treated like an awkward burp at a dinner party. No retractions. No shame. Just a pivot to the next smear.

But now, in the summer of 2025, the narrative control is cracking.
Tulsi Gabbard has released a flood of declassified documents confirming FBI and CIA abuse of power, including coordination with foreign assets.
Congress has corroborated these findings with sworn testimony and newly surfaced emails showing political intent behind the FISA requests.
Internal memos reveal that Brennan pushed the Steele material despite explicit warnings from analysts.
Multiple whistleblowers have emerged, including from inside the intelligence community, confirming that Russiagate was knowingly built on false pretenses.
Further disclosures in just the past two weeks have laid bare the playbook: planted stories, strategic media leaks, and weaponized intelligence assessments—all with partisan motive.
Key revelations include:

· Brennan briefing Obama on Clinton's plan to tie Trump to Russia

· CIA use of foreign intelligence to launder unverified claims

· Leaked internal emails showing FBI awareness of dossier credibility issues prior to FISA requests

· Newly released IC assessment documents intentionally misclassified to delay disclosure

· Additional Flynn targeting documents showing premeditated intent to sabotage the incoming administration

And still—not a single network has admitted they got it wrong.

VI. What the Tapes Were Then, the Receipts Are Now

Nixon’s tapes were real—and damning. That’s why he resigned.
Not because he ordered a break-in (he didn’t), but because the tapes exposed foul language, backroom scheming, and contempt for process. The press pounced. The public recoiled. And Nixon had no one left to defend him.

Russiagate had no tapes. But it had something worse:
Texts, emails, whistleblowers, declassified memos, Inspector General reports. A mountain of receipts.

All ignored.

Because this time, the evidence didn’t implicate the target.
It implicated the press.

VI-A. What Watergate Wasn’t

Let’s be clear about what didn’t happen in Watergate.

There was no opposition research funded by a presidential campaign and entered into evidence by the CIA.
No sitting president ignored his own intel chiefs because their assessment didn’t fit the preferred narrative.
No FBI or CIA leadership funneled classified leaks directly to major media outlets to frame a political rival.
No secret surveillance on campaign staff using fabricated evidence.
No premeditated ambush of an incoming National Security Advisor.
No coordinated effort to sideline a sitting Attorney General.
No deliberate classification of documents to bury exculpatory facts.
No foreign-intel shell game to disguise domestic political spying.

Watergate was a stupid burglary, followed by a stupid coverup.
Russiagate was an information war waged by the state against its own people.

One was a scandal uncovered by the press.
The other was a scandal committed with the press.

VII. From Watchdogs to Attack Dogs

In 1972, they were adversaries of power. In 2016, they were power.

They didn’t speak truth to authority. They spoke lies for it.

Watergate proved the media could take down a president. Russiagate proved they could invent a scandal to prevent one.

VIII. End Note: They Did It Because They Could

Nixon’s real sin was making them feel stupid. Trump’s was making them irrelevant.

And for that, the two conservative leaders had to be destroyed.

Watergate took down a man for hiding a crime.
Russiagate was the crime—and they gave each other awards for it.

It wasn’t just a difference in scale. It was a difference in kind.
Institutional evil versus a botched break-in.

History won't forget. Neither should we.

We’ve seen the crimes. Now show us the punishment.

Grook: From Bugs To Bugmen

Watergate had hacks and tape,
A bungled job, no grand escape.
But now the crooks wear nicer suits,
And plot their ops in intel boots.
Back then, the press exposed the crime—
Today they headline while they mime.
A fake so big, it won awards—
Then vanished through the newsroom doors.