Weaponized FBI?  So, What’s New?

There is a lot of debate these days regarding the independence of the FBI.  Has it been weaponized by corrupt leftwing leadership – as conservatives contend?  Or is it a non-partisan agency providing good service in fighting crime – as the progressives contend?

In recent years, Democrats and those on the left claim that the FBI – and its parent, the Department of Justice – are non-political, non-partisan institutions devoted to enforcing the law without bias.   Of course, there were not saying that when the FBI was dealing with Hillary Clinton’s emails.  But as I have frequently noted, politics and hypocrisy are Siamese twins.

The claim that the FBI and the DOJ are non-political is a fairytale.  Both agencies operate as an integral part of the POLITICAL process.  The heads of both the FBI and the DOJ are appointed by the President of the United States – who is always partisan and biased in his POLITICAL views.   This is especially true of the Attorney General, who is a key appointee of the President.   The AG’s job depends on keeping his President happy – and to protect the President’s political and personal interests. When they cannot do that, they either resign or get fired.

We could see that political loyalty in past AGs – John Mitchell (Nixon), Griffin Bell (Carter), Ed Meese (Reagan), Janet Reno (Clinton), Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch (Obama), William Barr (Trump) and now Merrick Garland (Biden).  Each of them – and others – created controversy by serving as partisan attorneys for their boss, the President of the United States.  In most cases, it involved blocking or refusing to take up cases detrimental to their boss or their own political party.

J. Edgar Hoover served for 36-plus years as Director of the FBI – beginning with President Franklin Roosevelt and ending under President Nixon.  In the 51 years since, there have been 15 directors of the FBI – with eight of them serving less than one year.  The high rate of turnover can be seen as indicative of the political nature of the position – at least from the standpoint of the President.  The person in the Oval Office always wants their ally as FBI director or Attorney General.

In terms of the FBI, we can look at the first and longest serving Director, J. Edgar Hoover.  He conspired and connived with Presidents Johnson, Kennedy, and Attorney General Robert Kennedy to investigate and blackmail Martin Luther King – even to the point of CREATING FAKE DOCUMENTS. 

It was widely reported that Hoover used FBI senior staff to SPY ON AMERICAN POLITICIANS AND INDIVIDUALS he considered enemies or threats to his power – and acquired information against them.  In some cases, Hoover’s illegal political activities were FOR THE POLITICAL BENEFIT OF THE PRESIDENT.

Fast forward to more recent years.

While previous FBI directors would occasionally act in a political manner, it was nothing compared to the actions commencing with Director James Comey.  Not since Hoover has the FBI been as politically motivated at the top.

Initially, Comey directed his politicized activities against Hillary Clinton.  He launched an investigation into the handling of top-secret documents and emails during her time as Secretary of State.  Rather than follow the FBI policy of not commenting on investigations close to an election, Comey flipped back and forth from commenting on the investigations … declaring it closed … saying it was being reopened … and closing it again after coming under public criticism.  Some believe that Comey’s public statements cost Clinton the election. It certainly did not help her campaign.

However, Comey – and other top officials of the Department — were no fans of Clinton’s opponent, Donald Trump.  In fact, the FBI leadership were key players in the “resistance movement” that rose immediately after Trump’s election.  It was at that time that the FBI’s Peter Strzok sent an email to his FBI colleague and lover, Lisa Page, advising her not to worry about Trump because they had an “insurance policy.”

Comey knowingly used a FAKE DOCUMENT to launch a bogus investigation alleging the Trump campaign was criminally conspiring with Russian meddling in the 2016 election.  Comey used FBI agents in INVESTIGATING POLITICIANS AND OTHER INDIVIDUALS associated with Trump. 

The FBI did find crimes with some of those they investigated, but none that involved conspiring with the Russians. In a couple of cases, the FBI was using those crimes in attempts to get those involved to flip on Trump.  I

n the case of Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, they used the unrelated criminal charges to get him to plead guilty to election fraud, which may not have been a criminal act at all.  That was used to tie Trump to alleged election fraud.  In other words, they offered to go easy on the tax fraud and not go after Cohen’s wife IF he pleaded guilty and implicated Trump in an action that may not have been a prosecutable crime.

Comey admitted to leaking information to the news media through an intermediary in the hope of forcing the appointment of a special prosecutor.  Robert Mueller was appointed, and he put together a team that included Strzok – a key individual in the get-Trump scheme.  When Strzok’s communications with his paramour were disclosed, he was forced off of the Mueller team.

Comey’s leak to the media – and his admitted purpose – not only was a gross violation of FBI rules and procedures, it was clearly a political action.

Comey and his deputy director, Andrew McCabe, were involved in the use of the PHONY DOCUMENT – the Steele Dossier.  McCabe was fired from his job because he leaked information to the Wall Street Journal and had lied under oath to agents questioning him about the leak.  His termination was days before his retirement – and it cost him his government retirement money,

Among the early actions of the new Attorney General Merrick Garland, was to reverse the department’s action … eliminating the firing from his employment record … and restoring McCabe’s retirement benefits.  That was clearly a partisan political action.  McCabe is now a regular leftwing political commentator on CNN.

During the 2020 campaign, members of the intelligence and law enforcement community created another phony political document.  In this case, it was a letter signed by 51 former officials attesting to the “fact” that the Hunter laptop story was a concoction of Russian operatives.  The PHONY DOCUMENT was admittedly created to help Vice President Joe Biden win the election.  It was reported that several of the signers knew the information in the letter was untrue.

So far, the Biden Justice Department has refused to undertake an investigation of Hunter Biden.  Based on what is known about Hunter’s activities – including other members of the Biden family – the refusal to investigate smacks of politics.

You may recall how Attorney General Eric Holder buried the Fast and Furious operation that had the American government providing guns to Mexican drug cartellians – with one of those guns being used to murder a border patrol agent.  Holder’s refusal to cooperate with Congress got him the only Contempt of Congress ever issued by the House of Representatives to a U.S. Attorney General.

In the recently released Durham Report, the Special Counsel found that the FBI had acted inappropriately and with political bias in launching the Crossfire Hurricane investigation of the Trump Campaign.

The House – under Republican leadership – is investigating the extent of the politicization and weaponization of the FBI and intelligence agencies.  It is a worthy action despite the fact that Democrats and their media allies are trying to undermine the House investigation by claiming there are no grounds – nothing to see. 

I used all caps above to draw attention to the similarities between then and now – and to demonstrate how any government agency – including the FBI and the Department of Justice — can be misused for political purposes.  

Democrats now claim that the FBI and DOJ operate in the public interest without any political bias.  Let us be clear.  They are political agencies run by folks with political agendas — and loyalties to the person who controls their jobs. 

We should pay attention to the hearings with an open mind – because the partisan weaponization of the two major law enforcement agencies is especially dangerous to the Republic.

So, there ‘tis.