Where is the FBI in the Constitution?

This argument comes from a well-educated and experienced woman; nevertheless, it's very odd.
Where is my Congress? This is the urgent question posed by these outrageous attempts by the president to subvert the constitution.... Congressional Republicans who stick by Trump and protect him will be remembered as the villains of Washington’s unfolding drama. They are the ones enabling an epic White House end run around the constitution.
What does the Constitution say about the relationship between the FBI and the President? Nothing, since the Founders would never have contemplated establishing an organization like the FBI. The Constitution doesn't even mention the Attorney General, although that office is nearly contemporaneous: George Washington signed the law into effect creating the office. That law says that the President shall choose the Attorney General, provided that the Senate confirms him; it does not give the Attorney General independence from the Executive branch, nor divide his office between the Executive and the Legislature.

The FBI works for the Attorney General, who works for the President. It's an executive department, and what the Constitution actually does say about the Executive Branch is that its power is invested in a President. Though by law Presidents have to run certain appointments by the legislature, usually the Senate, that does not mean that those appointees draw their power from Article I. They're Article II officials, exercising delegated authority.

So what, exactly, is the subversion of the Constitution that is supposed to be taking place? If the legislature wants to investigate and/or impeach the President, they have Article I authority to do that. It's not obviously a power that is wisely invested in an Article II bureaucracy in any case. Nor would I want the Constitution to set up an 'independent' police agency that could not be constrained by elected officials; especially not a secret police.

The author seems to want exactly that.
As the Republicans continue their campaign to discredit the FBI, it’s important to remember a piece of history. Without Deep Throat, the Washington Post’s secret source, the Watergate scandal might never have been exposed. Deep Throat, we learned in 2012, was Mark Felt, the No2 official at the FBI.
This is meant to be the model of what right looks like? Oath-breaking leaks from the secret police, protected from accountability by un-elected journalists? Even if it happened to work out well one time, it's hardly a model I'd invest much faith in.

5 comments:

E Hines said...

What does the Constitution say about the relationship between the FBI and the President? Nothing....

On the contrary, it says lots--it's right there in the black and brown of the parchment on which it's written. Can't you see it? It's the living constitution: the text means whatever it ought to mean, and unelected judges [and journalists] decide what that is.

Eric Hines

Ymarsakar said...

The Constitution is no more immune to manipulation than the bible was. It just takes time, as changing too much defeats the purpose.

The Deep State will determine. Mostly because Americans still ignore things like Operation Paperclip, Deep Freeze, and the Federal Reserve of all things.

J Fing Kerry was also in Antarctica. People don't ask questions because the MSM is their duly delegated "free press" that was supposed to do the job of "thinking" for America.

They didn't do much about Wilson or FDR at the time: a string of constant Deep State victories. As a result, people don't even know what FDR or Wilson did or who they were for.

Dad29 said...

Perhaps she will defend the FBI's persecutions of homnosexuals and blacks, too--as she did Deep Throat.

Uh-huh.

Sam L. said...

Deep Throat was in the FBI.

Ymarsakar said...

The FBI number 2 was refused promotion by Nixon, so they in accordance with their secret combination with the Leftist alliance, decided to puppet master the MSM into leaking things.

Then when Nixon thought he had turned off his recording system, it was never actually off to begin with. The FBI then leaked this.

Who was the ones who told the FBI to break into X and Y? The same FBI number 2 that told the FBI to break into Ayers' Weather group, which ended up exonerating Ayers and Bernadine... how convenient.

Americans aren't told the truth because they can't handle the truth. Although that usually didn't stop me from warning them.