Even the most hardcore Trump haters realize by now that the FBI overstepped its bounds in seeking to spy on the Trump campaign in 2016. The pendulum is swinging the other way, now that the never-Trumpers realize that an FBI and Department of Justice that can go after a President can also go after the President’s political enemies. But the deep state isn’t done trying to take down President Trump just yet.
The FISA court recently rebuked the FBI for its mishandling of the investigation into the Trump campaign, specifically calling out the Bureau for using falsified intelligence to apply for a surveillance warrant. The court ordered the FBI to fix its abuses, and has appointed an attorney to help assess the FBI’s response. That’s where things start getting really weird.
The attorney appointed by the court is David Kris, whose social media posts are virulently anti-Trump. Not only that, but Kris also writes for an anti-Trump blog that is run by a friend of former FBI Director James Comey. Anyone want to bet that Kris is going to find nothing wrong with what the FBI is doing?
This move on the part of the FISA court is either the most tone-deaf move ever in politics, or a deliberate attempt to whitewash the FBI’s malfeasance. Maybe the court believes that Americans aren’t paying attention to what it’s doing, but they couldn’t be any more wrong. The lid has been torn off in DC so that ordinary Americans can now see the sordid machinations that go on behind the scenes in Washington. Expecting to make a move like this without a backlash is just unbelievable.
It also makes it clear that, despite the slap on the wrist the FBI received from the court, the FISA court is really about defending the interests of the faceless, unelected bureaucrats of the deep state more than it is about actually seeing justice done. In order to really see the FBI brought to justice, we’ll have to wait for Attorney General Barr to finish his investigation, and hope that President Trump secures a second term so that those involved in wrongdoing can be prosecuted.