Trump hit with 'haunting' blackmail theory explaining his Iran moves: 'We're not joking'

Over the past month, President Donald Trump has dramatically escalated his administration’s war against Iran, culminating with his threat to destroy Iran’s entire civilization earlier this week, but according to Tucker Carlson’s independent media outlet, a “blackmail” operation could potentially be forcing the president’s hand.

The theory was outlined in a Friday morning newsletter from the Tucker Carlson Network, which pointed to a past incident that some have characterized as an attempted effort to blackmail a sitting U.S. president. Specifically, the newsletter cites claims made by political writer Daniel Halper in his 2014 biography “Clinton Inc.,” supported in part by sworn testimony given in 1998 to the congressionally established Office of Independent Counsel.

“Establishment media never reports this, but the Israeli government has a storied history of blackmailing U.S. Presidents,” the newsletter reads. “Perhaps the most jarring example occurred in the 90s, when Israel used recordings of a Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky phone sex session as leverage to pressure Clinton into releasing convicted spy Jonathan Pollard from prison. We’re not joking. That really happened.”

Evidence supporting the allegation that Israel had attempted to use phone recordings of Clinton and Lewinsky as “leverage” first emerged in 1998 after Lewinsky testified before the Office of Independent Counsel about her affair with the sitting president.

During her testimony, Lewinsky said that in early 1997, Clinton had told her “that he suspected a foreign embassy was tapping his telephones, (he did not specify which one),” just one month after then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Clinton in the Oval Office.

Later in 1998, Netanyahu again met with Clinton amid peace talks between Israel and Palestine that were being held in Wye River, Maryland. It was during that meeting that Netanyahu “privately” approached Clinton with a “demand” for the United States to release Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who was convicted of espionage in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison.

“The Israelis present at Wye River had a new tactic for their negotiations – they’d overheard Clinton and Monica and had it on tape,” reads an excerpt from Halper’s book, written using “on-the-record interviews with former officials” and “hundreds of pages of documents,” The Times of Israel reported at the time of the book’s publication.

“Not wanting to directly threaten the powerful American president, a crucial Israeli ally, Clinton was told that the Israeli government had thrown the tapes away. But the very mention of them was enough to constitute a form of blackmail. According to information provided by a CIA source, a stricken Clinton appeared to buckle.”

As to how the alleged incident between Clinton and Netanyahu relates to Trump’s escalations in his war against Iran, the Tucker Carlson Network suggested that Netanyahu – who has “pushed for the United States to attack Iran since the 1990s” – may be using a similar tactic to what he was alleged by Halper to have done nearly three decades ago to another U.S. president.

“Israel’s current top priority is making sure Operation Epic Fury does not stop. They know the U.S. fighting their war for them is the best chance at expanding their borders and becoming a global superpower, and a peace deal would foil their plot,” the newsletter reads, according to an excerpt shared by the Daily Caller writer John Loftus.

“That could mean Clinton-style blackmail against Trump, or something far more morbid. We do not know for sure whether that is happening, but the mere possibility is haunting enough to keep the president up at night.”