The other half of the motive

And if a hope of currying favor with the expected new president isn't enough, now there's the fear of suffering reprisals from the possible new Congress:
The Justice Department’s tepid OIG report, with its risible assertion that there was no political bias in the FBI’s Clinton email probe, suggests that it was written by people afraid to tell the unvarnished truth about the conduct of the federal government’s police apparatus, an agency that openly defies congressional oversight and has participated in a vendetta against a sitting president. The FBI’s leadership clearly hopes that the Democrats will win majorities in Congress and put a halt to the investigations into its multifarious abuses of power. The OIG is loath to face the ruthless reprisals that would inevitably follow such a disaster.
In other words, the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General is filled with people who fear the FBI. Think about that for a minute. What is the usual term for a government whose members live in fear of its police arm? Ronald Reagan famously said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” The OIG report suggests that its demise may be only one election away.

5 comments:

Grim said...

We should strongly consider disbanding the FBI. The ATF, too, but that’s less dangerous to Constitutional liberty — and I say that as a 2nd Amendment absolutist.

E Hines said...

Well, it is the FBI that's demanding back doors into our encrypted communications.

Eric Hines

Assistant Village Idiot said...

I would believe their protestations of neutrality more readily if the problems weren't always in the same direction.

raven said...

Doesn't the President have a rapid response Marine Regiment at his disposal near DC? Or something like that?

Seriously, if there is a Federal Law enforcement agency in open rebellion against the elected President, with tacit support among other agencies, what other option is going to work? This is a case of "how many divisions the pope has." If the agency has the power to intimidate the regular offices that deal with corruption and treason, the military may be the only tool left-excepting, of course, the people. It has long been noted the alphabet bureaucracies are the real government, elections be damned- it may be coming to a head.

E Hines said...

There's also Jurney v MacCracken, wherein the Senate's Sergeant-at-Arms was authorized to arrest the Post Master General--deputizing as many deputies as he thought he needed--and haul him before the Senate, at which point the Senate tried him for Contempt of Congress, convicted him, and jailed him for a 10-day sentence. The cited case is the Supremes' upholding the trial and jailing.

Only timidity keeps the House from doing the same thing with Rosenstein and Wray. The FBI has armed agents, but so are the Capital Police and Secret Service. It would be instructive of Rosenstein's and Wray's motives to see them in open rebellion. As well as seeing how many FBI agents--and from what hierarchical level of the FBI--would be willing to support the rebellion.

Eric Hines