Below is my column in the New York Post on the recently disclosed FBI investigation into the communications of Republican House staff members investigating the FBI.
Here is the column:
The House Judiciary Committee is investigating why the FBI subpoenaed the emails of leading Republican congressional staff members.
In his most recent appearance before Congress, FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to provide any new information on various scandals but seemed eager to assign past abuses to his predecessor, James Comey.
But the dates on these subpoenas do not support Wray’s use of Comey as the department’s sin eater.
Wray has tried to portray himself as in the dark on many scandals while also insisting he is a hands-on administrator. This scandal cuts against . . . well . . . both Wrays.
While many on the left still celebrate Comey’s tenure, an array of serious constitutional violations have been established as occurring under his leadership, including massive unconstitutional surveillance practices, false statements to courts and his own individual violations, such as stealing FBI material and leaking the contents to the press after his termination.
I testified Friday on the abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act under Comey and the need for Congress to end or to reform Section 702 under that act.
The House Judiciary Committee is investigating why roughly five years ago the FBI reportedly seized emails from Google belonging to Kash Patel, the chief investigator for then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, as he and other staff were making headway in their examination of the Russian collusion investigation, including political bias and false statements by FBI officials.
That was shortly before the release of the report exposing the failures in the Russia collusion scandal. A second staffer was also targeted.
The letter from the Committee to the Justice Department refers to subpoenas issued to Google in 2017 for emails and cellphone data.
The demand seems quintessentially Comey-esque.
Former FBI Director James Comey has been all the rage on the speaking circuit discussing his curious view of “ethical leadership,” which often seemed to include the knowing violation of constitutional provisions or agency rules.
He thrilled audiences, for example, with his lighthearted description of how he violated department rules to nail Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.
He delighted audiences with how he told underlings “let’s just send a couple guys over” to trap Flynn.
Yet Just the News reportedly has the subpoenas and states they were dated Nov. 20, 2017, with the materials to be sent to the Department of Justice by Dec. 5, 2017.
Comey was fired in May 2017, and Wray began his tenure in August 2017. It is not clear if this targeting of congressional staffers began under Comey.
It is hard to imagine such an extraordinary move being taken without the director’s knowledge.
So Wray is either engaging in willful blindness or failed to exercise control of his own department.
There was a time when members of both parties would be outraged and unified in responding to such tactics by a federal agency.
All members should want to know the rationale for this intrusive move by the FBI as it was being investigated by these aides.
James Madison designed a constitutional system with a frank understanding of the factional and petty impulses of politicians.
Yet he believed he had created a system of checks and balances that could rely on the institutional self-interest of members to jealously protect their powers under Article I.
Madison believed that despite party affiliations, “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”
Madison never envisioned the 118th Congress, where politics regularly trumps institutional and constitutional values.
The ambitions rarely seem to run toward constitutional protections and privileges.
Democrats certainly disagree with Republicans on the Russian-collusion investigation, and they are no fans of Patel or Nunes.
But there is a far more important issue at stake in this controversy.
Subpoenaing the records of members of Congress or their staffs is a direct challenge to the oversight and legislative functions under Article I of the Constitution.
The FBI knew Google would withhold notice of the subpoenas for five years.
Wray may have to offer more than “Damn that Comey” on this one.
Jonathan Turley is an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School.
Mr. Wray said it was just a few bad actors in the FBI who had done the dirty deeds. He failed to mention that it was the actors at the very top of the pyramid who were trying to lay their political enemies low. Now once it’s found out that he has been in on the coverup all along what does he do. He says, I didn’t do it Mikey (James Comey) did it. Jay Edgar Hoover just sent him a memo from hell telling him what a fine job he is doing. It’s time to take out the garbage.
“The New York Post” and any “House” committee tell me all I need to know.
Gigi, thats good at least you’ll know one thing.
I’m rather surprised commentor ‘Gigi’ follows ‘The New York Post’ or ‘House’ committees. .. at all.
*”Yesterday a House Committee — Republican-led, but still — released a series of documents showing without a doubt that the FBI has been forwarding thousands of content moderation “requests” to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube on behalf of the SBU, Ukraine’s Security Agency.”
Gigi, read this —->
🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸
@mrddmia
From Day One, Attorney General Merrick Garland has politicized and weaponized the Biden Justice Department.
He’s relentlessly gone after Trump, Trump’s top aides, Trump’s supporters protesting the election results on January 6th, parents outraged by gender chaos and sexual assaults in schools, and Christians praying outside of abortion clinics.
At the same time, Garland has protected Biden, Biden’s corrupt family and business associates, BLM and antifa terrorists who destroyed American cities, trans-terrorists attacking Catholic Churches, and abortion-industry activists who destroy pro-life pregnancy centers and obstruct by illegally threatening and intimidating Supreme Court justices and their families in their homes.
Matthew Colangelo, a top Biden Justice Department official, joined Soros-funded Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office to indict Trump for the non-felony of a businessperson settling a nuisance claim. And Bragg and Colangelo indicted the first former president in American history—who just happens to be the leading rival presidential candidate—based upon a bogus legal theory rejected by the prior Manhattan DA, Manhattan US Attorney, Federal Election Commission, and Bragg himself.
Then Garland had his handpicked and disgraced special counsel Jack Smith—previously reversed and rebuked 8-0 by the Supreme Court for Smith’s blatantly partisan prosecution of a likely 2016 Republican presidential contender—indicted Trump for the non-crime of a former president having his presidential records in the congressional funded and heavily guarded Office of the Former President, which is allowed by the Presidential Records Act. Garland wants Trump to die in prison for “espionage” after Trump’s fight with Biden’s librarians and other bureaucrats over papers Trump has every right to access anytime he wants—but they claim Trump didn’t properly checkout.
At the same time, Garland secretly colluded with Biden’s personal attorneys for months to coverup Biden’s 5 sets of stolen classified records from the Obama White House and even the Senate, moved several times, accessible by the Biden’s Chinese agent, and almost certainly used by the Bidens to secure millions in foreign bribes and other corruption from Ukraine, China, and other trouble spots.
After Garland got caught in the coverup for his boss, Garland appointed special counsel Robert Hur, a protege of FBI Director Chris Wray who seems to be in no hurry to do anything.
Now Garland is poised to indict Trump again. So is Fulton County DA Fani Willis, a partisan Democrat politician in Georgia. This time for the non-crime of a presidential candidate objecting to a presidential election, which is permitted by the Electoral Count Act of 1887. Twisting political arms is also permitted by the First Amendment. It’s only a crime to object to elections in third-world Marxist hellholes. Otherwise, Democrats would be in prison for objecting to Republican presidential wins in 1968, 2000, 2004, and 2016.
Democrats are terrified they can’t beat Trump in the polls.
So Garland, Smith, Colangelo, Bragg, and Willis and running a baseless and transparently political lawfare campaign to try to have Trump die in prison instead of Biden (or Gavin Newsom) facing Trump in November 2024.
This is election interference at its worst.
It’s long past time for House Republicans to impeach Garland.
Trunp “supporters” were not “protesting” the election results. What is there to protest? The fact that Trump lost, just like he was predicted to do, following 4 years of historically-low approval ratings and after ruining our economy, our public health and our relations with our allies? They could have stayed home and “protested”–but that’s not why they went to Washington on the specific day of January 6–it was at the urging, and based on the lies of, Donald J. Trump, who told them that if they didn’t “fight like hell” they weren’t going to “have a country any more”. Their hero told them that the VP was refusing to “do the right thing”–something he had no authority to do–which was to reject certified votes from the states. So, is Merrick Garland, who took an oath to uphold the Constitution, supposed to just let this pathological liar who misled people into invading the Capitol get away with it? One of his followers got killed, the Capitol sustained over a million dollars in damage, and Capitol Police were beaten and brutalized.
How about the GA Attorney General–is she suipposed to ignore the fact that Trump tried to rig the vote in her state by pressuring the Secretary of State to “find” him votes he didn’t get, and by getting fake “electors” to falsify Electoral College results? These are felonies. She also took an oath to uphold the GA Constitution. What was there for Trump to “protest”? The fact that Georgia voters, like most of America, rejected Trump? It remains true that there is NO evidence to support the Big Lie–the election was not rigged–Trump lost fair and square.
All of the “whataboutism” about Joe Biden and his “crime family”, the alleged “bribes” and his alleged “dementia” are nothing but lies. There’s no proof of any of these things.
Trump STOLE classified documents to which he has no possessory right. He was told this before he stole them, but took them anyway–for what reason? Souvenir? To show off to MAL guests, to show off to young female staffers about what a big shot he thinks he is, to leverage for something–to sell the information? He was politely asked several times to return them. He refused, gave back some, hid the rest, lied about returning all of them and then forced a search warrant, which proved that he was a thief of our most-precious secrets. He keeps lying about the Presidental Records Act as giving him a right to these papers-but he wasn’t charged under the Presidential Records Act–he was charged under the Espionage Act. Classified documents do not belong to the POTUS, and he lied about declassifying them. So, what is Merrick Garland, who took an oath to uphold the US Constitution and our laws, supposed to do–just let a malignant narcissist and chronic liar steal classified documents, refuse to return them, lie about returning them, store them in unsecure locations and fund raise over being a “victim”? The papers Trump stole are NOT “presidential records” because his office did NOT generate them, and as of Jan 21, 2021, he became a regular citizen just like the rest of us, with no right to possess classified documents. And, the Secret Service made clear that it does NOT “guard” papers or property–just persons. Another lie.
Why would Democrats be “afraid” of Trump? He lost every election year–starting in 2016, when Hillary Clinton beat him in the popular vote, and because of him, Republicans lost seats in Congress. Every poll predicts that in a head to head matchup Biden would beat him once again. Americans aren’t stupid like the members of Cult 45–they see what a wonderful job Biden has done in turning around the economy, public health, our relations with our allies and the legislation he has gotten passed that will help all of us. They also see Trump for what he is–a whiny, liar, bent on vengeance.
Gigi – “nothing to protest”. What was Al Gore protesting in 2000? Why did Hillary Clinton try to persuade committed Republican electors to support her in 2016?
Natacha….er……Gigi….Democrats know this all ends up in the Supreme Court. That’s why they have stepped up their attacks on the conservative justices….especially Clarence Thomas…..this is their new “Russia hoax”….
The people who do NOT see Biden for who he is, are not paying attention.
Joe Biden is a criminal.
One more time for the people in the way back: JOE BIDEN IS A CRIMINAL.
Impeach!
Hey, NUTCHACHACHA, they think you’re Gigi.
How cool is that, Comrade Sista???
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
– Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
I suppose, sooner or later (hopefully), it will become clear the FBI doesn’t have much time to investigate people not involved in shady behavior. I.E. R’s turned up on the radar screen because they were most likely involved in criminal behavior. I know this isn’t a popular opinion on this blog…, but there you have it.
Granted trump has put out there recently that he wants to bring the likes of COINTELPRO back into vogue driven by a Trumpian slant, but as of right now the FBI is still held to the standards that came about because or, and in reaction to, COINTELPRO.
“ABSOLUTE DESPOTISM” YOU SAY!
It’s long past time, men.
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
– Declaration of Independence, 1776
I read the news today .. .
“In 1943, as the end of World War II was nowhere in sight and when patriotic national unity around the defeat of fascist aggression from Germany and Japan was at its height, the US Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that the free speech rights contained in the First Amendment barred public schools from forcing students to salute the American flag at assembly every morning. “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein,” wrote Justice Robert Jackson for the court.”
*Cleary, Justice Robert Jackson was waaaay wrong.
Oh boy!
That makes no sense. Democrats would likely prefer that Biden name a new FBI director.
Afaict, the Democrats don’t give a rats a** about anything .. . other than Trump.
Biden could appoint a long-tongued Devil to run the FBI, shoot someone on fifth avenue and/or start a global thermal nuclear war with czar Putin the Great .. . back, back in the U.S.S.R.
*it makes no sense.
The depths of Trump’s incompetence when it comes to picking people for jobs is beyond the pale. Please, wake up and pick someone else for the nomination or we will all suffer far worse than we need to!
Chris Christie picked Wray. Christie, yet today is defending Wray, and claiming all the crimes committed have been addressed.
Christie and Wray are twins.
Chris Christie, the celebrity, has no market value.
Chris Christie can’t monetize Chris Christie.
Chris Christie may realize some worth by denying whatever principles he once pondered or backstabbing people he once knew.
Alternatively, he may apply for Dog Catcher or County Landfill Tech…somewhere.
Any Republican candidate against globalism who wants to reform government will face the same obstacles, even from some Republican members.
S. Meyer,
That is an interesting point.
I read a transcript of Tucker Carlson making the observation that Trump has really shaken up the Republican party. Or something like that.
While I did not vote for Trump, as you and I discussed in the past, I am thinking Trump could be a catalysis for changing the party. There is a lot of old blood, too dependent on the status quo. Frankly I am surprised at how well he is polling and how poorly DeSantis is.
DeSantis is a great candidate, but not this time unless real troubles hit Trump. He needs a bit more work and needs to develop a more engaging personality. That was the first thing I noticed when I met and spoke to him.
Also, he is not as well known as many who follow politics might believe. His wife is great and helps him with the personality issue.
If Trump wins, the most important thing, other than keeping us safe and the economy from tanking, is to clean house. I think now he might be able to do it. He has a Rolodex and experience. We need to end the careers of several Republicans and create a party of inclusion similar to what Bill Buckley was trying to do.
If DeSantis prevails, he has my full support. He is a great governor and shows the nation how to govern a state. He is bringing back federalism, something states should learn to do. That is the problem with the government’s ability to tax and use the money to bribe the states. In the long run that task is one of the most important so if he leaves Florida, we lose that avenue of reform.
Wray believes he is untouchable, just like Comey thought. Wray needs to think again.
Keep feeding them Turley, the cult is always the victim, always being picked on. And Comer and Jordan will get to the bottom of it this time, right Turley? Keep the rage going Turley, because it’s the only thing they have left, playing the victims when it’s their fault they decided to live and believe the lies. And when, and it will come crashing down, they will all whine and cry like they always do, and blame someone else.
It seems your comments are as useful as your moniker.
Seems kinda tyrannical…
Who approved using HRT to conduct a search of President Trumps home?
Long Guns a-ready, personal armor affixed, search every nook and cranny, and don’t forget that panty drawer!
Real quackery, reprehensive deception on display, which surely (yea I know don’t call me Shirley) must have been approved by Director Wray.
William S. Sessions, Louis Freeh, Robert Mueller,
James Comey, Christopher Wray, Andrew McCabe,
David Bowdich, Paul Abbate, Jeffrey Sallet, Brian C. Turner
Why won’t any of them say “The Mandate” came from Above? (Congress Member(s) and The W.H.)
It’s the -= The Nixon Syndrome =- Stupid!
Jonathan: We know why Jim Jordan called FBI Director Wray before the House Judiciary Committee. Jordan is trying to show the FBI, under Wray, has been “weaponized” to go after conservatives–particularly Donald Trump. It’s all part the MAGA Republicans game plan to tarnish the Biden admin. ahead of the 2024 elections so DJT, if he gets the nomination, can claim “victimhood” at the hands of the FBI/DOJ. Jordan’s hearing was bizarre because Wray is not a liberal Democrat. He is a life-long conservative Republican appointed by DJT! That Jordan would attack such an appointee shows how desperate he is to find something. Jordan is even threatening to cut off FBI funding to make his point. As we enter the 2024 election campaign season there will no doubt be attempts by foreign actors to interfere with our elections–as they did in 2016 and 2020. You would think Jordan would want more money for the FBI to be able to confront such challenges. Nope. Jordan apparently thinks, like DJT, that foreign interference in our elections might not be a bad thing. Go figure.
Now the part of your column that got my attention was your reference to James Madison–your favorite Founding Father. Yesterday I posted a comment to your column (“The Nuclear Option…”) pointing out the threat posed by Trump’s 2024 campaign pledge. He wants to change the balance of power between the three branches of government so he has almost unlimited power to rule by fiat along with the ability to fire anyone in government agencies he deems “disloyal”. That is a prescription for authoritarian rule. So I asked you what James Madison would think about DJT’s plan.
In this column you supplied a partial answer. You say Madison “believed he had created a system of checks and balances that could rely on the institutional self-interest of members to jealously protect their powers under Article I”. But DJT’s plan for power is directly opposite of Madison’s concept of “checks and balances”. He wants all the power in his hands. So I renew my Q. What would James Madison say about DJT’s plan? Personally, I think Madison and all the other Founding Fathers would be rolling over in their graves!
The Founding Fathers would have voted to remove Trump from office when he was impeached. Agreed that they’d be rolling over in their graves.
The Founding Fathers would have voted to remove Trump from office
The founding founders were sticklers for rule of law. They would have NEVER started impeachment proceedings, since no high crime or misdemeanor existed.
Great point! Of course this anonymous never considered that was even an option.
More than one existed, including some not charged, such as Emoluments Clause violations.
Throw that mud, counselor. See what sticks. Oops. Nothing.
Foreign Emoluments Clause
“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
I wonder if that applies to a VP who uses his bagman son to receive some $10 million from the “foreign state” known as communist China. Or to the same VP who, “without consent of congress,” accepted untold millions from numerous other foreign states.
As usual, the Left invokes the Constitution when doing so satisfies a desire. And ignores it when it doesn’t.
The Founding Fathers would never had needed to impeach Trump. Trump would have never made it into any office for his liberal, communist positions supporting labor over freedom and free enterprise, affirmative action by way of his “racial” support for “black” people which violates American concepts of equity, private and public unions, absurdly high wages for public workers, rent control, minimum wages, wholly unconstitutional Social Security and Medicare, etc.
The Founding Fathers were the personification of Freedom and Self-Reliance sans unconstitutional governmental favoritism, handouts and charity.
Trump was who the founders were seeking to protect against. A corrupt character who’d willingly sell out to bribes from foreign powers. The McCarthyism came along as an extra as trump learned it from Roy Cohn
What a ——- idiot. Excuse my French. Have you heard about Joke Buydem and his sidekick, Hunter, the most corrupt tag team in American political history? Have you not noticed the lopsided “justice” being meted out in America against actual Americans, patriots and citizens who are conservative just like the U.S. Constitution, which is maximally conservative and completely bereft of anything approaching liberal communism – no “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” there, comrade.
Anonymous: I agree. The Founding Fathers would also have hung Trump for treason. Much of what the Founding Fathers considered when they established our government did not involve any consideration for a malignant narcissist who would do literally anything to get and hold onto power–including lying about losing a free and fair election, fomenting a riot, standing by idly while his fans hunted the VP with the intention of hanging him, stealing classified documents, paying off a porn actress, appointing fake “electors” to file false Electoral College ballots, and pressuring state election officials to rig the vote by “finding” nonexistent votes. His latest gambit is to proclaim that if he gets into office again that he’ll take over and control all federal agencies, including the DOJ and FBI, and fire anyone who won’t do his bidding. I would think that even members of Cult 45 would be frightened by the prospect of such obvious totalitarianism.
Thanks for enlightening on trump’s ‘election’ behavior, Gigi. His willingness to rig elections ran directly counter to what the founders sought to create for sure. All told, Dana Nessell, Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, and Jack Smith…, as well as the J6 committee will be regarded as modern day ‘Paul Revere’s’ for their work in holding a rogue scoundrel accountable.
Either that or brutal, perfidious, treasonous, dictatorial, communist Bolsheviks.
“[Trump will] take over and control all federal agencies . . .”
Newsflash: Consult an organizational chart. Those federal agencies exist in the Executive branch. A president does control them.
Contrary to the Left’s wishes, when they wish to satisfy a wish: Bureaucrats are not a fourth branch of government. They are not a law unto themselves.
I reject the notion that these blatantly unconstitutional/illegal practices by the executive branch is a ‘weaponization’ of congress .. . as well as Judge Doughty’s characterization of them as targeting ‘conservative’ speech.
Do I look ‘conservative’?
Do I look conservative? I fully agree with Judge Doughty’s ruling, and no one has ever accused me of being ‘conservative’. . on the contrary, I’m wild as a three-peckered billy goat on the 4th of July.
*99 subpoenas of Trump on the wall, take one down pass it around .. . 98 subpoenas of Trump on the wall.
Oh, my, are you ever confused. The very definition of tarnish is Biden. Biden is literally a mere front man and figurehead for the Global Communist American Deep Deep State Swamp; he is good for nothing else.
Biden = Tarnish
As in, “Your propaganda, brainwashing, and indoctrination text is severely Bidened.” Real President Donald J. Trump said that he was told by Senator Ted Kennedy that then-Senator Joke Biden was the dumbest person in the Senate. What does one do if one does not possess the intellectual capacity to win by cogitation? One engages in corruption—the very definition of Joke Biden.
“But DJT’s plan for power is directly opposite of Madison’s concept of “checks and balances”.”
Leftist lies about the opposition are getting really tiresome.
There is nothing in Trump’s plan about usurping the powers of the legislative or judicial branches. He wants to defang and fire *bureaucrats*, especially the life-long ones who believe that they are the fourth branch of government.
Dear Prof Turley,
This little Wray of sunshine certainly helps explain the FBI Director’s contemptuous behavior before the House Oversight Committee recently.
It harkens back to the CIA hacking Senate Oversight Committee investigation on torture, but at least the CIA apologized. Those were the days.
Nowadays, they just thumb their nose @ everybody (& no, I’m not suggesting the WH cocaine was Wrays .. . but I know what you’re thinking.).
errata
– seems to me Google had/has some responsibility here – no [FBI] subpoena is valid if it’s blatantly unconstitutional.
– Ol’ Madison and the boys should have abolished all ‘political parties’ – from the git-go – and it’s still not too late.
– ‘It is sad when governments are cheaped by the Devil tongue’ ~ chief ten bears
Shouldn’t FBI Director Wray be investigating the new information that was released about the decades old book “October Surprise” by Gary Sick?
Recently a top Republican insider revealed that, working for the benefit of Ronald Reagan, Republican operatives made a deal to “not release” the Iranian hostages until after the 1980 Presidential Election. The goal was to take away votes from Jimmy Carter.
The same day Jimmy Carter was leaving the White House (defeated by Reagan) – the same day the hostages were released. Reagan supporters bragged it was because Iran feared a strong man like Reagan.
Carter supporters suspected Reagan allies cheated for over 40 years. Just recently, a former Reagan operative admitted that was exactly what happened.
Innocent American hostages were held longer simply for petty political purposes. It doesn’t mean Carter would have won, but he did lose votes over this fraud.
Reagan operatives used American hostages as pawn pieces for petty political motives. Some might call it treasonous. This fraud (now proven) is surely illegal. Why isn’t the FBI investigating this?
Hey Eavey, I know you are upset that Carter didn’t win in 1980 and I am sure that back then you supported the USSR as well as Carter. Your ilk DEMANDED that we disarm unilaterally while Reagan forced the Soviets to disarm with us. You demanded that we end nuke power unilaterally. You demanded that we not be too aggressive with the peace loving Soviets. Your ilk was still claiming that Hiss and the Rosenbergs were innocent at this time too.
You know what Eavey, if your guy Carter won in 1980 we wouldn’t have a war in Ukraine right now…because Ukrain would already be part of the USSR. We would have an East Germany, a subjugated Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Romania. But you and your other pony-tailed friends still hate Reagan…and probably Nixon too.
PS. Ask the innocent people of Iran what they think of Carter. Ask the folks that had to pay 10% interest on mortgages about Carter. Ask drivers how they liked gas lines under Carter. I am sure you think Biden is doing a heck of a job too.
I don’t believe it for a minute.
“republican operatives”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Carter failed, I believe he had some terrible rescue attempt that ended in utter disaster.
What is possibly true is some patriots that are generally republican know how to work foreign policy, something the demoncrats and libs completely fail at. The demoncrats are hypocrites and all the foreigners know it – they lecture and grandstand and talk smack but are so dirty and pathetic they give away the farm and the US gets nothing.
So don’t ever expect a demoncrat to do some deal with foreigners that benefits us. Last one I recall Obama traded the top 4 world terrorist leaders for a traitor who fled post overseas.
Re comment of Eavey S V @ 1`0:38 am. Anyone who might take this comment seriously might want to read “NEWS Making Of A Myth” by John Barry in Newsweek, dated 11/10/91 at 7:00 PM EST. Various allegations about this conspiracy theory are examined and debunked. It is notable that Eavey does not present a link to the “top Republican insider.” The theory is not even plausible. If the Iranians had wanted to release the hostages while Carter was President, they had months to do so. The fact that they waited until Carter was no longer President to release the hostages speaks loudly of their contempt for Carter. More signficantly, the current attempt by a paid troll to revivie this old hoax shows that Democrats refuse to accept defeat in any election, no matter how far in the past.
Turley:”…There was a time when members of both parties would be outraged and unified in responding to such tactics by a federal agency….”
There are no Democrats I know who don’t view themselves as far smarter and more sophisticated than me and the irony is they are becoming the designers of their own jail. As Richard Feynman said of physics “You first have to not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” It applies to politics and governance as well. Democrats are basking in their own perceived rectitude and fooling themselves.
As far as being in uncharted waters goes, I think the FBI has always been a marginal agency. It has demonstrated incompetence for 100 years — from the get “Dillinger” operation to the raid at Little Bohemia right up the to failings of the FBI lab, the failures of 9/11, Richard Jewell, Steven Hatfill, Wen ho Lee, protecting Whitey Bulger, Robert Hanson and all the while violating civil rights right and left, literally…need I continue? The Church committee meant to address the Civil Rights Era abuses. Then to explain the failure to anticipate 9/11 the narrative became that the firewalls erected by the Church Committee had to come down. Well, the failure to anticipate 9/11 is better explained as the usual incompetence. The brazenness of the agency has finally reached a level posing a threat to republican self-government or to what the Democrats whine as “their Democracy”, whatever that is.
James Madison designed a constitutional system with a frank understanding of the factional and petty impulses of politicians.
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson…. up to Abraham Lincoln, all knew that the only way the nation could realize the promises of the US Constitution, was a moral and virtuous people. Washington precisely stated in his farewell speech that it is impossible to have morality without religion. Our nation left that port in the 1960s and we continue to swirl in a vortex down a black hole of despondency, annihilation, self-destruction and irrelevance. One does not have to look at the awful examples these past few decades in the US Congress or Presidency to see how far our nation has fallen from President George Washington’s farewell address. We see it in most Americans in our schools, hospitals, gyms, streets and grocery stores. It is hard to miss them considering their largess, their slovenly appearance, their oceans of ink tattoos, and their humorless disposition. After all, our politicians come from the citizenry. As Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” comic stated, “We have met the enemy and he is us”. Religion has been stating as such for millennia.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
– John Adams
The sincere friends of liberty, who give themselves up to the extravagancies of this passion, are not aware of the injury they do their own cause. As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form. Were the pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us faithful likenesses of the human character, the inference would be, that there is not sufficient virtue among men for self-government; and that nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.
– Federalist Papers, #55
The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny……This, however, is not among the vices of that constitution. The magistrate in whom the whole executive power resides cannot of himself make a law, though he can put a negative on every law; nor administer justice in person, though he has the appointment of those who do administer it. The judges can exercise no executive prerogative, though they are shoots from the executive stock; nor any legislative function, though they may be advised with by the legislative councils. The entire legislature can perform no judiciary act, though by the joint act of two of its branches the judges may be removed from their offices, and though one of its branches is possessed of the judicial power in the last resort.
– Federalist Papers, #47
Until Americans, the citizenry, adopt a virtuous and moral living, our demise should surprise no one. We were warned in St Augustine of Hippo’s The City of God describing in detail the reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire.
Sophia!
Of all the dispositions and habits, which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
Washington’s Farewell Address, 1796
Wray is supremely confident that between the Democrats in the Senate and the mainstream media, he can lie like a pumpkin pie with zero accountability. None.
Oh please you’ve hurt the pumpkin pies feeling with that insult.
I disagree with Turley here. I think this one lies at Comey’s feet, not Wray, and it will be discovered that there was an active campaign to keep Wray in the dark. Moris Operandi.
Mr. Comey is the classic Greek manifestation of Hubris. His arrogance is so profound as to defy description. Ego’s like that are not uncommon in politics, sports or entertainment which demand a large measure of blatant narcissism. It can only grow when it is watered and fed by apathy of the public and the sins of power hungry politicos. Its growth increases exponentially when the practitioner suffers no consequences of his or her acts. He needs to fall and fail spectacularly. I hope I live to see it.
Mr. Wray is a different animal entirely. He is an apparatchik. Definition-an unquestioning loyal subordinate, especially of a political leader or organization. One sees almost no will in him except to serve his superior, no matter what the party. Will say any lie, will not see anything he is told not to see.
Comey was a republican (no longer) and Trump bears the responsibility for not demanding his resignation be on the president’s desk on 1/20/2017 at 12.01 pm. Just imagine the world if that had happened (and he should never have appointed Sessions to Attorney General-a man who was suborned by his own department and had no temperament to be a leader outside the Senate)
Wray-an acolyte of Chris Christie, also a republican, who still defends him. And also appointed by Trump who neglected to fire him when he non-performed. Christie is a mini-me of Trump. No wonder the Bromance blew up.Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. You get to pick Dum.
Trump accomplished much but he was undone by HIS many lousy appointees (among other things). His appointees also injure him or impede his programs (yet to be delivered this time around) as much or more than his mouth.
The democrats and progressives are bad enough, but we don’t need republicans who turn the gun on themselves even as they dodge shots from the other side.
You will never clean up this blatant anti-constitutional behavior until you clear D.C of all it’s scum on both sides and then you have a real chance to re-institute constitutional rule. The only real question is what price we will have to pay to get it done and we will pay that price.
Trump has more hubris and arrogance than Comey.
Trump announced that he’s gotten a letter from Jack Smith identifying him as a target in the J6 investigation and inviting him to testify before the J6 grand jury. I wonder how long before Trump is indicted again for his criminal acts. I wonder if JT will even mention it.
Don’t hold your breath or make a bet on it, Turley will never tell his Trump cult followers the truth.
But there’s a professor somewhere being sanctioned for their right wing viewpoint! Lol.
Fish Wings: right–so long as he’s on the Fox payroll. You’d think Turley would comment on DJT’s latest court loss–his effort to preempt the GA AG–he got shot down right and proper.
“. . . a letter from Jack Smith . . .”
I wonder if the Left will acknowledge that Jack Smith is the corrupt prosecutor who used the IRS to target conservatives.
“I wonder if the Left will acknowledge that Jack Smith is the corrupt prosecutor who used the IRS to target conservatives.” Sam, that’s not a bug to Leftists, it’s a feature.”