Tag Archives: FBI

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Insult machines kick into high gear

I have been watching U.S. politics for a long time.

At no time have I heard the disgusting and disgraceful level of insults being hurled between two individuals and their allies at the highest levels of our federal government.

One of them is the former director of the FBI, James Comey. The other is the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

Holy cow, dudes! What has happened to civil discourse?

Comey has written a book in which he declares that the president — who fired him a year ago — is “untethered from the truth” and who runs the executive branch of government like a “mob boss.”

Then comes the response from Trump, who calls Comey an “untruthful slime ball.” The president’s allies refer to Comey as a “disgruntled former employee” and a “partisan hack.”

Are you proud of our government at this moment? Me, neither.

To be truthful, I expected a lot more from Comey than from Trump. I had hoped that the former FBI director could have refrained from some of the gratuitous personal criticism of Trump he has written in his book. He is a former federal prosecutor, a top-flight lawyer who then led the FBI — a once-universally highly regarded law enforcement agency.

I didn’t expect Comey to sink to Trump’s level of juvenile petulance.

But he did.

He has opened the door for Trump and his allies to respond as they have done. Slime ball? Partisan hack? Disgruntled employee? And who knows what the president and his pals are saying to each other in private, out of public earshot?

This is not a good era in the annals of American political history.

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Comey takes Trump feud to new level

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James Comey should be better than this.

The former FBI director, whom Donald J. Trump fired this past year  because of “the Russia thing,” has fired a heavy salvo at the president that includes some strangely personal observations about the man who canned him.

For instance, he has written in his book that the white bags  under Trump’s eyes are the result of goggles he allegedly wears while lying on a tanning bed.

Did he really have to go there? Did the former FBI boss really have to offer that observation about Trump? I, um, don’t believe so.

As such, Comey seems to have climbed aboard the Trump clown wagon, providing the kind of critique of the president that we usually hear from Trump himself.

This disappoints me greatly.

There is so much to criticize about the president. His policy-making process; his tempestuousness; his lack of judgment; his caprice; his inability to acknowledge mistakes. I could go on forever. I won’t.

Comey has now opened the door for Trump to drag the men’s apparently intense mutual loathing even farther into the rhetorical gutter.

Of the two men, I consider Comey to be much more credible than the president, who continues to demonstrate his inability to tell the complete, unvarnished truth about anything. He has lied continually all during his 16 months as president, not to mention the two years that preceded his election.

I am left to wonder: Why did James Comey choose to saunter down that path of gratuitous innuendo?

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‘An attack on our country’?

Let me try to sort this out for a moment. That’s all it will take.

Donald J. Trump calls an FBI “raid” on a lawyer’s office, which it executed legally through court-ordered search warrants, an “attack on our country.” He calls it a “disgrace.” He condemns the FBI in the strongest terms possible.

Meanwhile, what does he say about Russian efforts to manipulate the 2016 election? What condemnation does he level at Russians who hacked into our electoral process and disseminated information intended to influence that election in Trump’s favor? Nothing, man!

OK. So, which is the greater “attack on our country”? The FBI sought records from Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to tie up some loose ends in connection with a relationship the future president of the United States had with a porn actress. The FBI is trying to determine the source of a $130,000 payment that Cohen made to Stormy Daniels to buy her silence related to the alleged relationship.

That is the “attack on our country” but the actual attack, by the Russians during our 2016 presidential election, is not?

What in the name of election collusion am I missing here?

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GOP appointees turn on their benefactor

The president of the United States is steamed that the FBI raided his private attorney’s office in a hunt for evidence related to the president’s fling with porn queen Stormy Daniels.

He calls it a “disgrace” and an assault on “everything we stand for.”

Interesting, isn’t it?

But let’s remember something: The three men who signed off on this raid all are Donald J. Trump appointees. That would be Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Southern District U.S. Attorney Gregory Berman and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

What is the president going to do? Is he going to fire them? All of them? Will he terminate them as a precursor to firing special counsel Robert Mueller?

The raid is intended to bring to light what transpired when Trump lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to keep her quiet about the alleged 2006 liaison with the man who would become president a decade later. Oh, but Trump keeps saying he didn’t have a fling with the porn start. He said he didn’t know about the payment of 130 grand in hush money.

I’m left to wonder: If Trump and Daniels didn’t take a tumble, what in the world is the hush money is all about? And are we supposed to believe that Trump’s lawyer would do something so foolish and stupid as pay someone off without telling his client?

Bizarre. Yes?

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FBI launches raid and the mystery deepens

FBI agents conducted a quick-hit raid on the office of Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

He’s the guy who shelled out that $130,000 hush-money payment to porn queen Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an affair that the president denies ever occurring.

Stay with me on this.

Cohen allegedly paid the money without his client’s knowledge. It supposedly came from a personal account. Trump has said he didn’t know about the payment. And surely we believe the liar in chief’s denial. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? I mean, he’s the president of the United States … after all.

I’m no expert on legal ethics, but this one just doesn’t pass the smell test. It stinks to high heaven.

So the FBI wants to take a look at the documents that Cohen had squirreled away in his office. They may — or may not — have anything to do with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation in the “Russia thing” that Trump calls a “witch hunt” and the product of “fake news” and Democrats who are still steamed over losing the 2016 presidential election.

As an American taxpayer with a keen interest in seeing this mystery play out, I welcome the FBI raid on Cohen’s office. It tells me that the nation’s premier law enforcement agency is on the hunt. It is seeking the truth behind — at a bare minimum (no pun intended) — this seedy, tawdry story involving our nation’s head of state.

There might be some element to this story and the payment of the hush money that hasn’t come out just yet.

So, the mystery deepens. Same for the intrigue.

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Hey, Mr. POTUS, DOJ is on our side

So sad that the Department of “Justice” and the FBI are slow walking, or even not giving, the unredacted documents requested by Congress. An embarrassment to our country!

I’ll give you just one guess where that statement came from. Time’s up! It came from Donald J. Trump, via Twitter — of course!

Have you or any of us ever seen a president of the United States of America disparage our federal law enforcement community in such a manner? Have any of us seen a president show such utter disregard for the professionals who toil in the trenches or who make command decisions on behalf of the country they all take an oath to protect?

He keeps disparaging Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He continues to undermine the field agents of the FBI, as well as their bosses at the Hoover FBI Building. He torpedoes the work of career prosecutors who work for the Justice Department.

He does so using social media, which if you consider the way he is using it to proclaim his distrust and distaste over policy matters, ought to be renamed. There’s nothing “social” about the way Trump uses — and abuses — this particular medium.

I’m tellin’ ya, the man is a disgrace to his office.

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Technology serves Austin PD — and the public — quite well

Technology sometimes gets a bum rap. Such as in Amarillo, where city officials are employing cameras to help officials deter motorists who believe stop lights are merely a suggestion and not an order.

I want to applaud the Austin Police Department, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for using high-technology measures in helping the cops track down a serial bomber who had terrorized the city for nearly three weeks. He detonated five explosive devices, killing two victims and injuring many more.

A young man was photographed at a FedEx center dropping off a package. The police got a good look at the image, then tracked him to a hotel in Round Rock. Austin PD deployed a SWAT unit to arrest the man, who took off in his car.

Police gave chase, and then the man blew himself to bits by setting off a bomb he was carrying in his own vehicle!

This is what I would call some first-rate police work.

Technology came into play. Austin PD used it to its fullest advantage. Granted, the man alleged to have set off the bombs seems to have made a fatal mistake by showing up — in all places — at a FedEx station where it could be assumed that officials are watching everyone’s every move every minute of every day. Right?

Austin’s terror appears to be over, provided the bomber didn’t plant other devices that have yet to be detonated. The individual who terrorized a major American city appeared to have sophisticated knowledge of how to assemble and plant these devices.

I’ll continue to hold my breath and hope that Austin has gotten past this terrible, frightening episode.

I also want to applaud Austin police and federal agency officials for their diligence and their thorough investigative techniques in bringing their hunt to a conclusion.

As they say: When it works, technology can be a wonderful thing.

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Mueller’s allies outnumber Trump’s

Donald Trump is finding out a fundamental truth about Washington, D.C. It is that he doesn’t have as many friends in high places as he thinks — or says — he does.

The president went on another Twitter tirade this morning, flinging thinly veiled threats against special counsel Robert Mueller. His lawyer, John Dowd, said he is “praying” that Mueller shuts down his Russia investigation in the wake Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s firing of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.

Mueller is a lot of trails to explore before he can wrap his investigation up. Law enforcement officials say it. Now, too, do Republicans in Congress who are rallying behind Mueller.

They are dismayed at Trump’s tweets and the threats he is delivering against Mueller, whose task is to determine whether the president is trying to obstruct justice, whether his campaign “colluded” with Russian election-meddling efforts and whether his business dealings are somehow interfering with the president’s duties as head of state.

GOP lawmakers fanned out on Sunday morning talk shows this morning to offer words of warning if Trump tries to dismiss Mueller. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said firing Mueller would signal the “beginning of the end” of Trump’s presidency. Rep. Trey Gowdy, another South Carolina Republican, wants Mueller’s probe to run its course. “If you’ve done nothing wrong, you should want the investigation to be as fulsome and thorough as possible,” Gowdy said.

I get that Trump has his friends and political allies, too. I just get the sense that they are outnumbered by those who are standing behind the special counsel who, you should recall, was hailed universally by politicians of all stripes when the Justice Department appointed him to do the job.

I feel the need to remind readers of this blog that Donald Trump had zero political connections when he ran for president. He spent his entire professional life making zillions of dollars in private business, stepping on toes and trampling foes in the process.

That experience does not lend itself to cultivating political alliances in an altogether different world.

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What about actual policy, Mr. President?

Donald J. Trump has said repeatedly that Twitter is his preferred method of communicating with Americans. He calls it an unfiltered channel through which he can make statements about this and/or that issue of the day.

Lately, and by that I mean for the past several weeks, all we seem to hear from the president of the United States are tirades about special counsel Robert Mueller, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and assorted boasts about how well his administration is operating. He has yapped about firing the secretary of state and has labeled as “fake news” reports of continued chaos in the administration.

I keep waiting for actual policy pronouncements. What about, oh, health care? How about defense spending? Do you have any legislative proposals to offer Congress, Mr. President?

I get that the president has talked via Twitter about gun-violence-related issues. He has flipped and flopped all over the place on any number of proposals. As with other compelling issues, I am waiting for something solid, declarative and final in his pitch to seek a solution to gun violence.

Long ago I quit lamenting the president’s use of Twitter. I get that he prefers that particular social medium as a way to express himself. I would prefer to hear something constructive, something proactive and perhaps even a conciliatory word or two to those — such as yours truly — who oppose his world view.

For that matter, how about using Twitter — or other social media platforms, for that matter — to offer an olive branch to those of us who oppose his occupying the presidency in the first place?

I can declare categorically that I would be open to softening my opposition to Trump if such a gesture were forthcoming from the president. Really! I am not kidding about that! Honest! I would!

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Trump is a ‘serious threat to … national security’?

Reluctantly I have concluded that President Trump is a serious threat to US national security. He is refusing to protect vital US interests from active Russian attacks. It is apparent that he is for some unknown reason under the sway of Mr Putin.

So says a retired U.S. Army four-star general, a combat veteran and one who has held top-tier commands in time of war. That would be Barry McCaffrey, via Twitter.

Sadly — and I say this with great sadness — I happen to concur with what Gen. McCaffrey has concluded.

The actions of the past several days have accelerated my concerns across the land. There now appears to be evidence building that Donald John Trump is seeking a way to bring special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation to a halt. Mueller, appointed by Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, to examine the Russia meddling matter in our 2016 presidential election, has indicted several senior Trump campaign officials. He is looking at Trump financial matters. He is seeking to tie it all together to determine if there was anything illegal being done on behalf of the Trump campaign.

Oh, and then the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, fired former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe just hours before McCabe as set to retire from the agency he served for two decades. Do you think Sessions did so at the behest of the president, who has been openly critical of McCabe and who well might have threatened the AG with some punishment?

This, I submit, was a disgraceful display of classlessness.

I won’t diagnose the president with any medical disorder. I won’t suggest he has flipped. I do believe — at some unknown level — that he has placed Russian interests above our own national interests.

The Russians have attacked the United States electoral system. Intelligence agencies have confirmed it. Independent analysts have concurred. Donald Trump refuses to direct intelligence officials to launch cyber countermeasures to protect this nation.

It is fair to wonder: Is the president derelict in his duty?

Gen. McCaffrey believes that is the case.