Criticism of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is now off limits. President Biden, the Department of Justice and the FBI's top official have deemed it dangerous to question the agency's integrity. Their puffed up outrage comes after the FBI raided the home of former President Donald Trump.
No one in the administration appears concerned about the chilling effect of dispatching more than 30 armed FBI agents to carry out an unprecedented search at the residence of Biden's chief political rival. All the facts in the case are still being sorted, but that hasn't stopped damaging DOJ leaks to the media.
After the raid, Republicans castigated the FBI. Democrats acted as if criticism of the agency was an act of terrorism. Apparently, they do not recognize their own hypocrisy. The party has often been critical of the FBI when it suited their politics.
Democrats were indignant when then FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress in 2016 about an investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails in the heat of a presidential election. Comey was excoriated for attempting to influence and manipulate the election. Clinton blamed Comey for her defeat.
Do you remember any Democrats grumbling that it is unpatriotic to critique the FBI? Me neither. The fact is the FBI's credibility already rests on thin ice. Just consider the agency's handling of former Secretary of State Clinton, who had classified emails on a server at her residence in New York state.
There were no armed FBI raids on her residence to seize the server. Perhaps there should have been. Clinton aides destroyed her mobile devices with a hammer and her attorney deleted about 32,000 emails which Clinton later claimed were "personal." The FBI never examined those deleted emails.
Forget your Trump hated for a moment and ask yourself this question: Why did the FBI handle the Clinton and Trump cases involving classified information so differently? Media fact-checkers have issued parsed explanations on why the two cases are not similar. That doesn't answer the question about equal treatment by the FBI.
If this was the only example of politicized agents and questionable investigations, the FBI's motives might not be under extreme scrutiny. But it's not.
The FBI and DOJ used opposition research from Hillary Clinton's campaign to gin up a bogus investigation about collusion between President Trump and Russia. The bureau issued warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to spy on Carter Page, Trump's campaign manager.
In the wake of the Russian hoax, Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe was fired for misleading investigators about the Clinton connection and for perpetuating the fiction. McCabe was a top official, not some flunky.
A couple of weeks ago GOP Senator Chuck Grassley revealed that whistleblowers inside the FBI had outed an agency employee who tried to discredit and shut down the investigation into Hunter Biden's business dealings. The insiders allege the agent ran interference to halt further inquiries.
Whistleblowers fingered high-ranking agent Timothy Thibault. FBI Director Christopher Ray called the allegations against Thibault "deeply troubling." He pledged that whistleblowers would be protected. Apparently he didn't check with DOJ head Merritt Garland.
Within days, Merritt Garland issued a memo banning communications with members of Congress by Justice Department employees, including FBI agents. Garland's pretense was to protect the employees from "partisan or other inappropriate influences." No, his intent is to silence whistleblowers.
Garland is clearly worried about leaks about his agency's bias against Republicans. He has good reason to be after Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed an attempt by FBI sources to quash stories about the Hunter Biden laptop during the 2020 election.
A politicized FBI and Justice Department are imminent threats to democracy. Garland needs to reign in partisan FBI agents and avoid politicizing investigations. If he refuses, the president should fire Garland and then clean house at the FBI and DOJ.
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