The Donald Trump-Russia collusion scandal that first broke in December 2016 and roared on until April 2019 has no parallel in our history — it’s not even close.

As president-elect and later as sitting president, Trump was accused by the country’s intelligence and law enforcement apparatus of conspiring with a hostile power to subvert the 2016 election and sneak down a crooked path to the White House.

Along the way, a damning Intelligence Community Assessment was issued, a major FBI investigation, code-named Crossfire Hurricane, targeted the president, and a special counsel, Robert Mueller, was granted a team of prosecutors and a budget of millions to bring the guilty to justice.

It was the most sensational news story in history.

By one estimate, more than half a million articles were written about the collusion issue, the vast majority asserting or assuming criminality on Trump’s part.

A manic media competed fiercely to deliver the latest “bombshell.”

For over two years, the first Trump administration was forced to conduct America’s business while in the fetal position.

How much truth, you ask, did the accusations of collusion with Russia contain?

None. Zilch. Nada.

The entire episode was knitted out of whole cloth by the Obama White House, with an assist from the Hilary Clinton campaign and the eager cooperation of the heads of the FBI (James Comey), the CIA (John Brennan), the NSA (James Clapper), plus various zealous underlings.

Before asking the obvious questions, let’s pause for a moment to absorb this astounding fact: There was zero evidence, classified or otherwise, to justify the fuss, distraction and cost of the whole clamorous affair.

Pro-Trump fake news, as independent studies have consistently shown, had no effect on the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Mueller, in his final report, rather grumpily admitted that the two-year-plus investigation he led “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.”

In fact, as of Dec. 8, 2016, the intelligence agencies believed that “Russian or criminal........

© New York Post