The president’s decision to release that memo takes the hostilities between the White House and the FBI to a new level.
As NPR reports:
Trump’s allies in Congress, led by Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., say the real Russia scandal is the FBI conspiracy that they say launched a scurrilous investigation into whether Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russians who attacked the 2016 election.
Republicans focus on details in the memo that they say confirm people involved with the Russia investigation bear a personal animus against Trump, including FBI investigators and the former British intelligence officer who authored the infamous, unverified dossier about the Trump camp’s connections to Russia.
The FBI and Justice Department deny they’ve done anything wrong, and they opposed the public release of the memo.
Conservatives say there’s been a “deep state coup”. Others say this kind of talk is dangerous.
“Be careful playing with the deep-state idea,” an expert on Turkey told the Atlantic last year, warning that this talk “can so easily get out of control that it becomes a monster that helps whoever’s in charge curb freedom and intimidate dissidents, because it’s such a nebulous concept.”
This kind of tension — perhaps with less hyperbole — is nothing new, but law enforcement is one of the most powerful arms of any government.
When it gets labeled as the enemy … who is left to defend us?
GUESTS
Jens David Ohlin, Vice Dean and Professor of Law, Cornell University; @LieberCode
Jordan Fabian, White House Correspondent, The Hill; @Jordanfabian
Garrett Graff, Author of The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War in the Age of Global Terror; @vermontgmg
Rep. Mike Quigley, Member of the House Intelligence Committee; @RepMikeQuigley
For more, visit https://the1a.org.
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