We are told, however, that the FBI’s culture and institutions are exempt from the widespread wrongdoing at the top. Such caution is a fine and fitting thing, given the FBI’s more than a century of public service. Nonetheless, many of those caught up in the controversies over the Russian-collusion hoax were not recent career appointees. Rather, many came up through the ranks of the FBI. And that raises the question, for example, of where exactly Peter Strzok (22 years in the FBI) learned that he had a right to interfere in a U.S. election to damage a candidate that he opposed.
And why would an Andrew McCabe (over 21 years in the FBI) think he had the duty to formulate an “insurance policy” to take out a presidential candidate? Or why would he even consider overseeing an FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s improper use of emails when his wife had been a recent recipient of Clinton-related PAC money? And why would McCabe contemplate leaking confidential FBI information to the press or even dream of setting up some sort of operation to remove a sitting president under the 25th Amendment? And how did someone like the old FBI vet Peter Strozk ever end up at the center of the entire mess — opening up the snooping on the Trump campaign while hiding that fact and while briefing the candidate on Russian interference in the election, interviewing Michael Flynn, preening as a top FBI investigator for Robert Mueller’s dream team, right-hand man of “Andy” McCabe, convincing Comey to change the wording of his writ in the Clinton-email-scandal investigation, softball coddling of Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, instrumental in the Papadopoulos investigation con — all the while conducting an affair with fellow FBI investigator and attorney Lisa Page and bragging about his assurance that the supposedly odious Trump would be prevented from being elected. If a group of Trump zealots were to call up the FBI tomorrow and allege that a member of Joe Biden’s family has had unethical ties with the Ukrainian or Chinese government, would that gambit “alarm” the FBI enough to prompt an investigation of Biden and his campaign? How many career-professional Peter Strozks are still at the agency?
In sum, why did so many top FBI officials, some with long experience in the FBI, exhibit such bad judgment and display such unethical behavior, characterized by arrogance, a sense of entitlement, and a belief that they were above both the law and the Constitution itself? Were they really just rogue agents, lawyers, and administrators, or are they emblematic of an FBI culture sorely gone wrong?
How and why would James Comey believe that as a private citizen he had the right to leak classified memos of presidential conversations that he had recorded on FBI time and on FBI machines? more here
Perhaps the FBI is only continuing to act in the finest traditions of its founder, J. Edgar Hoover.
Alright! I’m out. Life’s too short to pretend to be equally retarded.
It’s beyond ‘tragedy.’ The real tragedy is the end of our nation as we knew it. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle, and in the case of America after 8 years of that c-sucker obama and clinton, too much has been destroyed, and too many have been corrupted and dumbed-down.
We need to split the nation in two or three.
Early on i believed only the top of the fbi was involved but i think now that this tyrany runs deep.
Every damn thing they touched… and I put the eRepublicans right up there with the rest of the progressive movement among those at the top of the list. The deep state must be dismantled, looks like they are doing it themselves and without a Romney or MCCain in the White House, we stand a chance.
VDH is a national treasure. i hope he is watching his six.
So sick and tired of Hannity saying 99.999% of the f b i are pure as the wind-driven snow. Talk about Fake News. Wake up!
They all thought Rodham-Clinton was going to be their next boss and would reward them accordingly. This had nothing to do with being keepers of the righteous flame and everything to do with going all in to get Clinton elected and to keep the Obama/Clinton regime — and their international use of foreign agents (MI6) to spy on and go after Obama’s political and policy opponents — from being exposed. This is the “bigger fish” Barr is soon going to fry.
This guy walks into a bar and tells the bartender,”I’m a DOJ whistle blower, how about a free drink”? The bartender looks at him and asks, “Is this some kind of a joke???
I havn’t had even a speeding ticket in almost 50 years
but I would not speak to an FBI agent to give him the
time of day without a lawyer present. I betcha there
are a lot of law abiding citizens who now think the
same way.
How do you rehabilitate that, DC?
Once an individual enters the world of Washington DC they embrace the culture and are transformed by it. Gradually they begin viewing the citizens outside of the Capital as ignorant lower life forms and develop a deep contempt for them.
I believe this view is almost universal among federal employees regardless of station and the longer one is there the deeper it becomes.
We’re at a point now that the rot in the DC culture can no longer be contained and masked from the public.
How else could a relatively obscure character like Obama rise from nowhere and feel so comfortable that he could commit treasonous acts without a hint of concern with consequences. He did so with the enthusiastic collaboration of nearly every influential person there.
I said here 4 years ago. When GWB put his KGB friend Bob in charge -’01- ALL NEW HIRES AND PROMOTIONS WOULD BE FAR LEFT FOLK! I said FBI, CIA should be destroyed and all fired.
FDH is confirming what I said, and have repeated many times! The majority of those stillat FBI + CIA do not like America or Americans. these folk and their agencies should be gone AND NOT REPLACED.
Before GWB it may have “been a few” and they were not at the top. Since ’01 THEY ARE THEY MANY; INCLUDING THE TOP!
“After decades in the FBI, the top brass came to believe they could flout the law and pursue their own political agendas.”
I respect Mr. Hanson, but – seriously?
The FBI has been corrupt since its inception.
Hoover played dirty-dick politics from the beginning.
The beginning of the 20th century saw the formations of many secret police agencies all over the world – NONE of which did other than serve oppression.
I’m sure there are many serious, law-abiding, sincere FBI agents out there somewhere, but the guys running it have an agenda which has nothing to do with law-enforcement: get rich, obtain power, wield it (maybe not in that order).
There are no coincidences in politics. If a Secretary of State is running a spy-op computer server out of the bathroom, selling America’s secrets to foreign agencies for donations through a phony “foundation,” and our “protectors” in the spook services (FBI, CIA, DIA, NSA, &c.) can’t uncover it, or even prosecute it after the damage is done; it’s NOT an accident or an oversight – it’s done on purpose – they are party to the Treason. And, if the legal concept of “Silence is Consent” is adopted, then EVERYONE in the agency (who was aware) is guilty – for there was not a single resignation over the matter.
izlamo delenda est …
Traitors need to hang!
“Speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act.” Geo. Orwell