Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Wray Leaving FBI
Chrstopher Wray is the Director of the FBI, appointed by Donald Trump in 2017. He has a 10-year term of office, meaning the job is his until 2027. He can be fired for cause, of course, but thus far, he has no scandal attached to him that would require his departure. Nevertheless, he is resigning effective at the end of the Biden administration. Mr. Trump has said for months he would get rid of the director, and his brief pressure campaign work. Now, he will be able to appoint Kash Patel, a demented conspiracy buff with minimal administrative experience. Should Mr. Wray have stayed on?
The best argument for him remaining at the job is the independence of the FBI. The original boss, J. Edgar Hoover, was not a nice man. He used the agency to get dirt on politicians whom he could then blackmail. He kept the job for decades. When he died in 1972, Congress tried to ensure that the agency was apolitical. That included a term of office for the director that was separate from the presidential election. By leaving in advance of 2027, Mr. Wray is undermining that independence.
Another argument for staying on is simply to prevent the FBI from political manipulation. Mr. Wray had the courage to order the raid on Mar-a-Lago that discovered hundreds of classified documents left lying about. The suggests Mr. Wray is not in the tank completely for Mr. Trump and could use his position to keep the agency independent.
The best way for him to do that, however, is to use the information the agency possesses the way Mr. Hoover did. Mr. Wray has access to the FBI files of every person on whom the agency has a file. That includes legislators, judges, members of the Trump family and so on. Mr. Wray could use that as leverage to make sure nothing untoward happens to the agency.
The trouble with that approach is that it does precisely what the 1972 reforms that followed the death of Mr. Hoover were designed to prevent. If the agency has to rely on blackmail (influence if one prefers) to retain its non-political, independent nature, then it becomes a political entity directed 180 degrees away from where Mr. Trump wants it. Yet, it remains a political entity, which is what was to be avoided.
Mr. Wray stated that he was leaving in order to spare the agency the trauma of a years long political fight that he may well lose anyway. Pulling the plug on it now will keep the field offices from demoralization for a time. However, if led by Mr. Patel, the FBI is going to be a third-rate political police force, and its morale will almost certainly decline the second he is confirmed.
Mr. Patel is an incompetent boob, but in Trumpworld, that makes one a potential leader. All one must do is believe in Mr. Trump and his perfection. One must simply ignore all the evidence. And then, one must embellish one's record to dupe the rubes in MAGA.
Mother Jones reported,
Patel, previously a public defender in Miami, was a lawyer at the Justice Department’s counterterrorism section from late 2013 until after the 2016 election. In his book, he calls it “a dream job for a young and ambitious lawyer,” and he states that he played a key role in the Benghazi case, in which the FBI and the Justice Department pursued the culprits responsible for the September 11, 2012, attack on a US diplomatic compound in Libya that resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. “I was leading the prosecution's efforts at Main Justice in Washington, DC,” Patel writes.
Several FBI and Justice Department officials who worked the Benghazi case say this description is an exaggeration. Asked about Patel’s characterization, a former FBI special agent who was on that investigation for years exclaimed, “Oh my god, no. Not on that case. Not on Benghazi.”
A narcissist with a political enemies list is not the man the country needs. Are there any GOP Senators willing to stop him? Is there any guarantee that another candidate would be any better given who is doing the appointing?
© Copyright 2024 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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