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J. Edgar Hoover Would Be Proud
Politico published an intriguing piece of real journalism in late July. It turns out that Donald Trump was not the first elected target of J. Edgar Hoover’s boys and girls. They caught a Delaware businessman, Christopher Tigani, violating fundraising laws. FBI agents then ran Tigani as an informant against the 2008 Joe Biden primary campaign. The FBI continued after the 2008 election, trying to get the sitting Vice President. The FBI had this businessman wired at meetings with various campaign and fundraising players. They allegedly tried but repeatedly failed to get their stoolie in direct contact with Vice President Biden.
Yes, there has been especially focused illegal behavior by federal officials against President Trump. And. Yes, it appears the name on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s headquarters has informed their organizational culture, despite a big show of reform in the 1970s. It appears very likely that the FBI ran Christopher Tigani against Joe Biden a decade before running agents against Donald Trump. One they targeted for old-fashioned campaign finance violations and one they targeted with an intelligence operation morphed into a criminal investigation.
So, what did President Obama know about each of these investigations, and when did he know it? Were his attorneys general in the loop? The FBI director during the anti-Biden operation was Robert Mueller, who then became the figurehead for the conspiracy wrapped in a coverup against President Trump. So, over the past decade and more, the FBI has targeted top presidential candidates in both parties, not stopping at the elections but pursuing the winning ticket into office. Perhaps this has been conveniently released now to provide cover against charges of partisan interference in our elections. Perhaps it was intended to make Biden out as a victim then rather than a perpetrator more recently against President Trump.
Exit question for Attorney General Barr: how many other presidents and vice presidents have the FBI investigated since 1974? How many top-tier candidates? Show us the files and reveal the decision-makers.
Published in Politics
The truth is out there.
Inspectors General <collapses in laughter>.
Is does seem like having the security clearance to monitor the FBI at its most senior levels is a closed club.
They are better than nothing, I suppose. But (agreeing with the laughter), they are insiders, too. How can they really trusted? The Horowitz report was too little, too late even though better than nothing. The inspectors general are employees of the same agency they inspect, aren’t they. How can we have any confidence in that however sincere they my be individually?
They were a sufficient concern to Obama that he left IG offices vacant for years at a time rather than nominate replacements. In general, you are right to be cynical, but as Henry II found of his good friend and rowdy companion Thomas Becket, put the right man in the wrong office and things can go quite awfully. Most of what I’ve seen from IGs is nibbling at the edges, but a history of federal IGs could be very interesting.
That is the problem. For career advancement, they might want the support of some of the people they are supposedly inspecting. There is typically no independent career path to greater glory for those Inspectors General who inspect too closely. At least not to my knowledge.
I believe the office of inspector general is inherently biased, not towards individuals in the agency, but towards the agency. They are in the business of protecting the agency against internal error and wrongdoing. That ultimately puts them in a position similar to honest cops in, say, Communist China. Any conclusions must not harm the reputation of the agency/Party.
I agree. A quick search points to the gang that ought to be sponsoring/funding/generating that history:
Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency