There is a very “Inside Baseball” post at Pat Lang’s place outlining what we’ve learned from the most recent revelations in the FOIA-based document drop last Friday. Love Trump or hate him I think that we should all agree that what has been happening at the FBI is extremely irregular and is a source of concern. There should be very serious repercussions but I’m under no illusion that there will be.
How do you maintain the rule of law when law enforcement simply refuses to follow the rules?
I don’t know how common this loosy-goosy behavior is at the FBI but it’s like no government bureaucracy I’ve even seen and I’ve seen them at all levels of government.
Not really inclined to put a lot of trust in what he (PT) says.
Steve
I’m not sure what news or reporting sources you consult, Dave. But many elements of the story (timeline, players, actions) have been slowly either divulged or proposed (sources) over the last 6-7 months by Sarah Carter and John Solomon. This may or may not be inside baseball, but the FOIA is more confirmatory than relevatory.
I would suggest to you that much of the closing of ranks and virulent, and at times bizarre, accusations about Trump while ignoring obvious abuses and non-facts is due to fears of being exposed. This is effectively life or death for some. Not just in the FBI, but more broadly Justice, and the CIA.
It’s ugly.
The Federalist has a somewhat different take on the FOIA releases:
https://thefederalist.com/2018/08/06/4-things-learned-fbis-mostly-redacted-steele-documents/
Under Hoover, the FBI played fast and loose, a bit of blackmail here, a black bag job there, wire taps galore, etc. Won’t be surprising to see it continue under a new guise.
This reminds me of the French witticism, what changes in an election is which bugs the secret police turned off and who got the transcripts from the remainder.
And right on cue……we have John Solomon after release of emails.
http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/400810-opinion-how-a-senior-justice-official-helped-dems-on-trump-russia-case?__twitter_impression=true
The Ohr, Ohr, Steele, FBI, Rosenstein etc connections were first commented upon in the spring. Now, much later, we have email releases. This has been the pattern of the whole investigation. Slow walk the source data.
What’s been going on IMO is an existential struggle between the elected leader of the nation (Trump) and the DC bureaucracy, who have been running the nation and consider themselves better qualified to do so (mostly using ipse dixit), and their allies in the MSM and Social Media. Considering the stonewalling, slow-walking, frothing-at-the-mouth rage, and continual mobbing (both physical and virtual) of opponents and even the slightest of dissidents by the latter, I cannot support them in any way shape or form. If they can take down a President with lots of populist support, do you think they would hesitate for a nanosecond to crush ordinary people for profit or who irritated them or who just got in their way? It’s the rule of law, however badly applied it may be, versus the rule of man. We’ve had the latter throughout most of our existence as a species. It’s called barbarism. No thank you.