When President Donald Trump spoke at the Department of Justice headquarters last week, it was already unusual for him to be there.
His wildly inappropriate remarks vowing to seek vengeance against his enemies and the media — in some cases identified by name — made his remarks unprecedented.
I served 25 years in the Justice Department as an FBI agent and assistant director, and I’ve never seen anything this ominous. What makes it worse is that the two men who now lead the bureau are well-positioned to carry out the retribution that Trump called for in his speech.
The FBI is now in the hands of two men who have never led anything. FBI Director Kash Patel, with a smattering of experience in criminal defense work in Miami and a stint as a prosecutor and political flunky at the Pentagon and the White House, says he’ll bring FBI credibility to new heights as director. Dan Bongino, a former Fox News host, failed U.S. Senate candidate and far-right conspiracy theory podcaster — who was permanently banned from YouTube and temporarily suspended from Twitter — will serve as the bureau’s deputy director.
But their lack of qualifications is the least concern.
Patel and Bongino are poised to turn the FBI into a cudgel to bash the bureau into a politicized spearpoint aimed directly at perceived enemies of Trump. During his confirmation, Patel faced questions about an enemies list of 60 people he referred to in his book as “deep state” and his stated intentions to pursue them. Bongino, for his part, seems hell-bent on firing any FBI employee involved in Jan. 6 cases or Trump investigations. It won’t matter whether those who face the FBI’s wrath ultimately prevail in the courts. Their lives, finances and careers can be ruined by the investigation alone.
(Patel testified before Congress that "there will be no politicization at the FBI" under him, while Bongino has said he would get rid of politicization already in the agency and focus on crimes such as drug dealing.)
Patel and Bongino aren’t rogue actors in their plans to utilize the power of the FBI for Trump. They’re enabled by a Trump-branded federal justice system. Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, promises to fire DOJ employees who “despise Trump.” (Note: That’s illegal). And, every U.S. attorney in every district across the nation — the prosecutors who decide which cases to open and close, are being replaced by Trump loyalists. In his first term, Trump ranted about locking up his political opponents and railed against the “fake news” media, but this time he’s enabled by his control of the House and Senate, the Justice Department and the FBI.
We’ve seen this before. When J. Edgar Hoover led the FBI, the agency, with the approval of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and later with the encouragement of President Lyndon Johnson, illegally wiretapped Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders. The FBI sent a letter to King, using details uncovered in the wiretap, essentially suggesting he kill himself. There were countless other “black bag jobs” where the FBI, without court authorization, broke into people’s homes, took evidence, opened and read mail, and planted microphones — all outside the law, because someone in power deemed those American citizens to pose some threat.
But we’re facing a perfect storm. The justice system is positioned to unleash injustices on a scale not seen in decades. The storm will be devasting. We ignore it at our peril.
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