In the wake
of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the FBI assumes an
importance and influence it has not wielded since J. Edgar Hoover’s
death in 1972. That is what makes today’s batch of stories from The
Intercept, The FBI’s Secret Rules, based on a trove of long-sought
confidential FBI documents, so critical: It shines a bright light on
the vast powers of this law enforcement agency, particularly when it
comes to its ability to monitor dissent and carry out a domestic war
on terror, at the beginning of an era highly likely to be marked by
vociferous protest and reactionary state repression.
In order to
understand how the FBI makes decisions about matters such as
infiltrating religious or political organizations, civil liberties
advocates have sued the government for access to crucial FBI manuals
— but thanks to a federal judiciary highly subservient to
government interests, those attempts have been largely unsuccessful.
Because their disclosure is squarely in the public interest, The
Intercept is publishing this series of reports along with annotated
versions of the documents obtained.
Trump values
loyalty to himself above all other traits, so it is surely not lost
on him that few entities were as devoted to his victory, or played as
critical a role in helping to achieve it, as the FBI. One of the more
unusual aspects of the 2016 election, perhaps the one that will prove
to be most consequential, was the covert political war waged between
the CIA and FBI. While the top echelon of the CIA community was
vehemently pro-Clinton, certain factions within the FBI were
aggressively supportive of Trump. Hillary Clinton herself blames
James Comey and his election-week letter for her defeat. Elements
within the powerful New York field office were furious that Comey
refused to indict Clinton, and embittered agents reportedly shoveled
anti-Clinton leaks to Rudy Giuliani. The FBI’s 35,000 employees
across the country are therefore likely to be protected and
empowered. Trump’s decision to retain Comey — while jettisoning
all other top government officials — suggests that this has already
begun to happen.
Full
report:
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