1 of 1- Goose
- Cogito ergo sum
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- Registered: 1/29/2015
- Posts: 13,427
Tearing Down the FBI
Now, why would the Trump Administration want the pre-eminent law enforcement agency in America to be weakened?
Maybe for the same reason that he wants to discredit a free press?
F.B.I. Director Wants to Move Forward, but the President Is Making His Job Harder
WASHINGTON — When President Trump tapped Christopher A. Wray to be his next F.B.I. director, it signaled a clear break from the tenure of James B. Comey, whom Mr. Trump had grown to distrust and eventually fired.
It seemed Mr. Trump would let his handpicked F.B.I. director do his work unimpeded, giving Mr. Wray some breathing room. “I know that he will again serve his country as a fierce guardian of the law and model of integrity,” the president said in June.
But nearly five months since Mr. Wray started the job, Mr. Trump has not made Mr. Wray’s life easier as he seeks to restore the public’s confidence in the country’s premier law enforcement agency — one that the president says is in “Tatters.”
Mr. Trump’s verbal assaults have put Mr. Wray and his leadership team in a difficult position. Mr. Wray is trying to move past his predecessor’s era and make sure there is not a whiff of politics at the F.B.I. He has promised the F.B.I.’s work would be based on the “facts, the law and the impartial pursuit of justice — period.”
Yet Mr. Trump and his allies in Congress are making that task much harder.
Current and former F.B.I. officials say Mr. Trump’s criticisms, and those of normally supportive Republican members of Congress, have damaged morale in some quarters of the bureau. Senior agents have expressed fear that if their names appear in the news media, they will be singled out for attack by politicians.
During a congressional hearing this month, Representative Louie Gohmert, Republican of Texas, asked Mr. Wray about the political views of some of his top agents. F.B.I. officials said they were stunned that Mr. Gohmert singled out a seemingly random group of agents. Several of those mentioned had nothing to do with either the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information, or the F.B.I.’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
When Mr. Wray accepted the offer to replace Mr. Comey, he knew the job would not be for the “faint of heart,” as he told Congress during his confirmation hearing. He has had to walk a fine line, trying to gently rebuff the president while not inviting a direct confrontation with him. Mr. Wray has kept a low profile, making sure his anodyne speeches inside and outside the F.B.I. do not inflame the White House.
“He’s got to be the top cover for the agency,” said James F. Yacone, a former senior F.B.I. official who retired in 2015. “He’s the chief fact collector, and he has to avoid being politicized. He has a difficult job.”
Shortly after it was revealed early this month that a senior F.B.I. agent and counterintelligence lawyer who worked on both the Clinton and Russia investigations had made anti-Trump comments while exchanging texts, the president said in a Twitter post that the F.B.I.’s “reputation is in Tatters.”
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
- tennyson
- Exchanger
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- Registered: 2/06/2015
- Posts: 6,654
Re: Tearing Down the FBI
A weakening of respect for a free press and independent intelligence agency is our International enemies dream come true. You do not always have to defeat your enemy with physical weapons when you can attack it from within.
"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"