So they screwed up.
The Justice Department and the FBI couldn’t figure out what they were doing when they chased 30 federal agents and technicians from inside the Mar-a-Lago club to the former U.S. president’s residence.
They didn’t understand something that was immediately apparent to longtime ABC and CBS newsman Jeff Greenfield. “100 Megaton Event”
We know it’s not due to Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has been quarantined on this issue.
We know it’s not from FBI Director Christopher Wray.
No, when justice didn’t have the brass to stand up and destroy a 246-year-old precedent and explain why a government agency allowed a former American president’s drawers to be rifled, we knew something was wrong. I had to guess.
‘Fertilizer Merchant’ Speaks Out About Trump’s Raid
Instead of a leader taking the podium, the administration kicked out several anonymous civil servants with shovels and wheelbarrows to clean up the mess.
In the age of carriages, they called them “Fertilizer shop”.
Newsweek called them “two senior government officials with first-hand knowledge of the FBI’s deliberations”.
Another way of looking at it: AG Garland owns FBI raids.your move, trump
One is a “high-ranking Justice Department official who is a 30-year FBI veteran.”
It must be assumed that both sources were speaking with the approval of their superiors. Otherwise, US intelligence has a very leaky ship. It’s probably a bigger problem than Donald Trump’s classified memo.
Anonymous sources provide key facts
their interview Newsweek veteran reporter William M. ArkinHaving covered national security issues for so long, we have established some important facts.
1) It was about paper.
The FBI search warrant was intended to retrieve classified documents. This is not something more serious like the January 6th investigation, Newsweek reported.
2) They had an inside source.
Two law enforcement officials said the agents had information from “classified documents ex-President Trump is still hiding and an FBI classified human source who was able to even locate those documents.” magazine reported.
3) There was no politics;
Newsweek reports that “both government officials said the raids were organized without political motives, and that the FBI had the sole purpose of recovering highly classified documents illegally removed from the White House.” reported.
Four) The Attorney General did not know.
“(Merrick) Garland had no prior knowledge of the date and time of the specific raid, nor was he asked for approval.” It was a matter of
Garland had been briefed regularly about the Records Act investigation, but was not alerted when the raid was called off, officials told Newsweek. (More on this in the update below.)
Five) The FBI director was responsible.
Christopher Wray voted in favor of conducting the raid, sources told Newsweek.
6) They didn’t expect the headwind.
“‘It’s actually the best and worst bureaucratic actions,’ said the official. I wanted to, but still [they] It turned out to be the exact opposite. “
Despite much speculation: Here’s what we know about the Mar-a-Lago raid
Two sources defended the court-ordered search while being critical of federal law enforcement.
The raid on Trump’s home was “deliberately timed to coincide with the president’s absence,” sources told Newsweek. “His FBI decision makers in Washington and Miami believe that denying the former president a photo opportunity or platform for a grandstand (or attempting to sabotage a raid) would reduce the profile of the event. I did.”
Instead, the American right wing erupted.
“What a spectacular backfire,” a law enforcement official told Newsweek. “…it’s really a case of the Bureau misreading the impact.”
Two words to describe this idea: “Failure”
Some legal circles have questioned why the FBI simply issued a subpoena to force access to classified information rather than raid Trump’s home.
Were you able to get the records in a non-intrusive way?
For the first time in U.S. history, law enforcement didn’t think it was a big deal to search the former president’s home, as Newsweek sources reveal.
There is a word for such thinking. It’s a “big mistake”.
Details from Boas: FBI Investigation into Trump’s House Could Tear America apart
Someone in the U.S. government should hang the FBI and Department of Justice for carrying out such highly sensitive and consequential law enforcement operations without warning the U.S. Attorney General or President.
The FBI may have had the court powers to do what it did, but the search was a provocative act in a razor-edge country. Polarization in America is at the height of our lives.
Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon’s secretary of state, recently told a British newspaper: America is ‘infinitely’ divided From the time of Vietnam. “An unstated, but very real debate in America today is whether or not America’s core values were valid.”
Trump was in trouble. the FBI gave him a lifeline
Failure to comprehend this moment and meekly returning to an anonymous source to admit one’s failure angers incompetence to fellow Americans and weakness to the world’s enemies.
“Trump’s raid is now a wall-to-wall political disaster for the USwrites Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger.
“Imagine what we would think about the stability of China or Russia if an event like this happened to Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin. Our opponents are redoing the global risk-reward ratio.”
Many of us on the right saw a better leader emerge in the Republican Party that could eventually replace Trump as the Republican standard-bearer in 2024.
A Republican strategist who advises Trump’s rivals told Politico this week.of The FBI raid “completely handed (Trump) a lifeline.”
“I can’t believe it,” he said. “It put everyone in Trump’s wagon again. It just blew the wind out of everyone’s sails.”
As chaotic as Trump’s presidency has been, Henninger writes, Trump’s second term will be nothing like the first. “Trump II will be in a four-year civil war.”
It’s been three days since the Mar-a-Lago raid and still no word from the President, Attorney General or FBI Director.
And that question is growing day by day.
Is there a person in charge here?
update: Merrick Garland released a short statement On August 11, he asserted that no one was above the law, adding, “I personally endorse the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter.”
He defended Justice Department officials against recent criticism.
He didn’t respond to questions, but said he would provide more information “at the right time” and “in the right way.”
For Garland, this was an important step in breaking the silence and rebuilding trust in the Justice Department and the FBI.
But the damage is real.
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for the Republic of Arizona. Email [email protected]
This article originally appeared in the Republic of Arizona. FBI Raids Trump’s House In One Word: ‘Disaster’