PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ELIZABETH BROCKWAY/THE DAILY BEAST

Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson has been very busy this week, defending her own integrity under the full-frontal assault against her by the Trump administration. At least the liberal media must assume that she had no time to explain her focus on events in Niger -- because the story only emerged now on AM Joy with Joy Reid articulating Rep. Wilson's hunch about what happened in Niger.

In a nutshell, we knew that Rep. Wilson has a long history with U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson and his family, both as a school superintendent and family friend, and in her foundation 5000 Young Men of Excellence, which educated Sgt Johnson and mentored him for years.

Less well known is Rep. Wilson's involvement with the Chibok Girls, kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria. Her page doesn't mention the release of significant numbers of the girls -- which it should, frankly -- but it's estimated by the BBC that about 100 of the original Chibok Girls remain missing.

Rep. Wilson is demanding answers -- and praising Sen. John McCain, who is calling for a full inquiry. Wilson believes that it's no coincidence that there was an attack on these US servicemen in Niger, with Johnson being split off from the group and her own work on behalf of the Chibok Girls.

For the record, Niger and Nigeria are two different nations, separated by the Niger River. Still, in a world running rampant with conspiracy theories, Rep. Wilson's warrants serious consideration.

A quick Google search confirms that Boko Haram is definitely operating in Niger and has launched numerous deadly attacks against the local population.

The LA Times writes Sunday that the militant group responsible for the attack that took the lives of four Americans and five Nigerien troops is believed to be an offshoot of Al-Qaeda and not Boko Haram, previously associated with ISIS.

Boko Haram was taken over by the super deadly Al-Shabab in 2017, some say. However Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari this week expressed grave concern for ISIS and Boko Haram as a unit.

Whether or not Rep. Wilson's work on behalf of the Chibok girls and the assault in Niger are related is a big leap, as opposed to an understandable coincidence, given the growing and underestimated by the US violence in the region.

But what requires no clarification is the long and very close relationship between Rep. Wilson and the Johnson family. When I woke up Friday morning, I saw the term "digital lynching" in reference to Wilson. I frankly sighed a sad exhale at the moment, because lynching is not a word to throw around. At no time did I not side with Rep. Wilson in my mind, but the words "digital lynching" hit me as a dramatic escalation.

However, as I read the facts and saw Rep. Wilson's actual 2015 speech about the FBI office opening in Miami, I was filled with repulsion over the Trump administrations attempts to smear her. It's astonishing, frankly, and Trump should understand that his intense efforts to change the narrative around the deaths of all nine men in Niger, to an assault on Rep Wilson, who has her own history in the region in despicable. And it fuels her own conviction that there is a connection between the death of Sgt. Johnson and her own work on behalf of the Chibok girls.

Read more about the Trump administrations attacks on Rep. Wilson at The Daily Beast.