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Christopher Wray Did The Wrong Thing
https://digbysblog.net/2024/12/13/christopher-wray-did-the-wrong-thing/He should have made Trump work for it
One of the most famous episodes in the Watergate saga 50 years ago was when CBS News reporter Daniel Schorr got a hold of Richard Nixon’s “enemies list” and read it cold on the air, only to find himself listed at number 17.
The Nixon White House actually committed dozens of abuses that came to light during the investigations spawned by the Watergate break in and one of them was the use of the FBI to investigate his enemies list. After discovering the full extent of the former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s overwhelming misuse of the bureau for decades, including blackmail, harassment and persecution, the Congress erected some strong guardrails designed to prevent such things from happening again. The Senate Judiciary Committee report explained:
They added, “it is the great value of the FBI as a criminal investigative agency as well as its great potential for infringing individual rights and serving partisan or personal ambition that makes the office of FBI Director unique.” Indeed it is as the decades of abuse by Hoover so amply demonstrated.
The main constraint they devised was the one ten year term and a requirement that a president has good cause to fire him before that term is up. All presidents since the law was enacted have had to deal with an FBI Director that was chosen by a predecessor and every single one of them, no matter who appointed him, has been a Republican. The idea that any FBI Director or the Institution itself is some bastion of woke liberalism is absurd,.
One of the most famous episodes in the Watergate saga 50 years ago was when CBS News reporter Daniel Schorr got a hold of Richard Nixon’s “enemies list” and read it cold on the air, only to find himself listed at number 17.
The Nixon White House actually committed dozens of abuses that came to light during the investigations spawned by the Watergate break in and one of them was the use of the FBI to investigate his enemies list. After discovering the full extent of the former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s overwhelming misuse of the bureau for decades, including blackmail, harassment and persecution, the Congress erected some strong guardrails designed to prevent such things from happening again. The Senate Judiciary Committee report explained:
The purpose of the bill is to achieve two complimentary objectives. The first is to insulate the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from undue pressure being exerted upon him from superiors in the Executive Branch. The second is to protect against an FBI Director becoming too independent and unresponsive.
They added, “it is the great value of the FBI as a criminal investigative agency as well as its great potential for infringing individual rights and serving partisan or personal ambition that makes the office of FBI Director unique.” Indeed it is as the decades of abuse by Hoover so amply demonstrated.
The main constraint they devised was the one ten year term and a requirement that a president has good cause to fire him before that term is up. All presidents since the law was enacted have had to deal with an FBI Director that was chosen by a predecessor and every single one of them, no matter who appointed him, has been a Republican. The idea that any FBI Director or the Institution itself is some bastion of woke liberalism is absurd,.
...
Christopher Wray let the country down with this namby-pamby exit. He was in a position to expose Trump’s disregard for the institution he purports to love and demonstrate his disrespect for the law and the constitution and he didn’t do it. Let’s hope we see more passive resistance coming from the rest of the federal employees.
Yes, I know it won’t stop him. But it will slow him down and it won’t be long until he’s officially a lame duck and all those Republicans will have to face the voters again. Then there will be a chance to deprive him of congressional power and reset the system of checks and balances.
Yes, I know it won’t stop him. But it will slow him down and it won’t be long until he’s officially a lame duck and all those Republicans will have to face the voters again. Then there will be a chance to deprive him of congressional power and reset the system of checks and balances.
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