*** “Dictators cause the world’s worst problems. All the collapsed states, and all the devastated economies. All the vapid cases of corruption, grand theft, and naked plunder of the treasury are caused by dictators leaving in their wake trails of wanton destruction, horrendous carnage and human debris.” [ George Ayittey ]
This post presents most of the corrupt FBI job interview printed on pages 16-17 of Devlin Barrett’s “The Department of Revenge.” Read this VERY carefully. – THIS is how “your” government, during the Trump DICTATORSHIP, operates. It is ONE. example of the WEAPONIZATION. of America’s “Justice Department.” [ NOTE: Devlin Barrett was won THREE. Pulitzer Prizes for his work. ]
1]. “Driscoll had gotten a heads-up from other FBI officials, including Paul Abbate, the acting director, that he and Robert Kissane, the senior counterterrorism official in the FBI’s New York office, were being considered for temporary roles at FBI headquarters, though it was unclear what the roles were exactly.”
2]. “Ingrassia’s first call with Driscoll, on the Friday before Trump’s inauguration, did not go well. Ingrassia asked two relatively straightforward questions about the organizational structure of the FBI and about threats to the United States. Then he asked Driscoll whom he had voted for. Offended, Driscoll refused to answer, and said asking those kind of questions were a violation of federal law. – specifically, the Hatch Act.”
3] “Ingrassia then asked if Driscoll agreed that the FBI agents who had “stormed” Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago should be held “accountable” for what they’d done. No, Driscoll replied, because they were doing their job based on a properly premised investigation and a warrant approved by a judge.”
*** “The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.”
[ Georges Bernanos ]
4] “Ingrassia then asked when Driscoll had started supporting President Trump. Shocked that he had even been asked the question, Driscoll refused to answer. Like all FBI agents and Justice Department career employees, he had been trained, tested, hired, and promoted in a culture that sought to studiously avoid brining politics into their work.”
5]. “A core principle of federal civil service people did not carry their political baggage into work decisions. In such large organizations, there were some people who violated the rules and some people who tried to bend them, but the overwhelming majority of Justice Department employees followed them and understood that they existed for good reason. Generations of law enforcement officials had sought to make a professional class of government lawyers and investigators, a work culture that demanded high standards not just in court or at crime scenes, but in every facet of their work. None of that seemed to matter to Ingrassia.”
6] “He asked Driscoll if he had voted for a Democrat in the last five elections. Driscoll refused to answer. With that, Ingrassia cut the interview short. The whole exchange had been bizarre. An aggressive young Trump staffer with no law enforcement or even White House experience had grilled a veteran FBI agent with a series of highly inappropriate questions about his political loyalty. Driscoll found it alarming and insulting.”
7]. “Later that night, Bove called Driscoll and told him he had “failed” the interview. Driscoll, Ingrassia had told others, was not “based out” enough. – not willing to declare his allegiance to the president’s agenda. Bove still wanted Driscoll in the job and told him he had worked to “flip” Ingrassia’s negative review.”
***. “There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice.” [ Montesquieu ]
[NOTE: consider the following for perspective: “Donald Trump has brought a very different approach to presidential politics, one that has corrupted our traditional expectation of public service that benefits the people….Trump’s approach to power during his second term has also made him resemble something else. – a mob boss.”
[ Former U.S. Attorney; law professor; Barbara McQuade: “the Fix” ]
***. “The U.S.S.R. was a totalitarian state in which judges and prosecutors were controlled by the ruling party. The result was injustice, oppression and corruption.” [ Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum ]
