The New Abnormal: Is Kompromat Already a Standard Political Tool of the Trump Administration?

I’ve been saying, again, that people having complete turnarounds in stances just following brief visits to the White House looks suspicious.

Remember how Sen. Lindsey Graham was openly contemptuous of Trump and contradicted Trump on policy early in Trump’s presidency? Remember how Graham came out of a White House meeting not only having reversed his opposition to particular policies, but turning into one of the most trenchant defenders of Trump on just about anything, including impeachment?

The phrase, ‘Lady G’, is now trending on Twitter. The story is that some GOP male senator has this sobriquet from a long-term habit of hiring male sex workers and forcing them to sign an NDA. Now, many of these sex workers are saying they are ready to tell their stories if the NDAs are, in fact, unenforceable. The speculation is that ‘Lady G’ is a reference to Lindsey Graham.

I don’t know if that is true. But suppose for a moment it is, or something equally shaming or harmful to a political career could be true. Then we have the case where Graham’s conversion may well have had everything to do with political blackmail, and nothing to do with actually benefiting the people he was elected to represent. And that that has been happening for years, distorting our politics as every action, vote, and statement he has made since then has to be presumed to have been made under coercion. Every one of those tainted acts must then be considered as invalid as the default in that case.

This is why people have been concerned about kompromat and dubious back-channel communications between our present administration and Russia, whose standard methods of operation routinely incorporate kompromat and who might well see the value in lending some of what they have to help this administration suppress any appearance of dissent among Trump’s GOP ‘allies’.

And by no means does this begin and end with the Lindsey Graham case. It’s happened over and over again that someone within GOP ranks is apparently brought to heel after spending a brief amount of time in a Trump White House visit. It has, indeed, happened again within the week with defense secretary Esper. Consistently, the people come out with their positions altered, but no disclosure of anything that reasonably might have led to that alteration. Begging off as things being under ‘national security’ may hide a multitude of sins.

We have real issues arising out of this. Have these people actually been compromised via kompromat? We will likely find out soon for Lindsey Graham whether that is the case. Have others also suffered this? If kompromat has been deployed, then, why has the White House been able to use that kompromat without any whistleblower coming forward to alert us? (Corollary to that, why hasn’t anyone affected by kompromat resigned and spilled the beans?) And where did the White House obtain the kompromat that was applied? Was that the result of domestic spying targeting politicians? Or was it provided from foreign intelligence sources eager to advance their own goals through this?

We live in interesting times.