With threats from Congress and demands from the White House, the same Republicans who less than a year ago were in a lather over the idea that someone might “unmask” an intelligence source in a private study of records, are now gloating over their ability to drag an FBI source into the public square. Donald Trump, Devin Nunes, Mark Meadows and the GOP House chorus will meet this week to peer at documents that reveal both the name of an FBI source and the details of how information was circulated through the agency.
And what kind of liberal, commie, ne’er-do-well has this all-out assault on an independent Justice Department uncovered? The name is now public enough that there’s no point in not repeating it.
Stefan A. Halper, the FBI source who assisted the Russia investigation and is at the center of a standoff between congressional Republicans and the Justice Department, is a well-connected veteran of past GOP administrations who convened senior intelligence officials for seminars at the University of Cambridge in England.
The long-sought identity of this “agent” who the FBI “planted” in the Trump campaign, turns out to be a member of Richard Nixon’s White House domestic policy council, and an assistant to Gerald Ford’s chief of staff. And it appears that the depth of his “implant” consisted of conversing with three Trump campaign members about foreign policy—conversations which apparently caused Halper enough concern to go to the FBI.
He doesn’t seem to have been implanted. Or embedded. Or inserted, encased, melded with, buried in, or attached via Velcro to the Trump campaign. It seems that he had some conversations with Trump advisers. And that’s it.
It could be the biggest genuine nothing-burger of the whole sorry story … except it’s not. Because it’s a prime example of how the rule of law is so readily discarded by a party, and a government, that’s become nothing more than a cult of personality.
The White House can’t even be honest about the most trivial detail.
The Monday meeting, which included Trump, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, lasted about an hour. Trump personally called to confer with the officials, two people familiar with the request said, though White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the meeting was put on the books last week.
It was put on the books last week, except that it was clearly in response to Trump’s weekend tweet “demanding” that the FBI and DOJ do … what they now have done.
While the 73-year-old Halper turns out to be no deep cover operative, and the latest Republican effort to tear apart the FBI if that’s what it takes to save Trump, ended up generating no more real “heat” than did Devin Nunes’s astoundingly over-hyped “release the memo” memo, the cumulative results of Trump’s actions couldn’t be more discouraging.
Trump demanded. Rosenstein and Wray obediently appeared. And they gave Trump what he wanted.
Dear, Mr. Dahmer,
The person who let us know about those big oil drums you’ve been bringing to your apartment was your neighbor in 4C. We can’t imagine telling you this will have any consequences.
Thanks,
The police.