Beyond the narrative engineering, NBC’s Ken Dilanian is reporting from his mutually aligned sources inside the DOJ and FBI. The basic outline is the embed officials within the DOJ, FBI and larger intelligence community, are not happy about the White House declassification directive. Why would they be?….
These are the same DOJ and FBI officials who, without justification, redacted the Lisa Page and Peter Strzok text messages.
First, the article:
WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials, blindsided by President Donald Trump’s order that they make public highly sensitive files in the Russia investigation, are hoping the White House will allow them to conduct a formal declassification review and damage assessment before they are forced to release the documents, current and former officials tell NBC News.
Senior executives at the FBI, Justice Department and Office of the Director of National intelligence were scrambling Tuesday to respond after being taken by surprise by a White House press release Monday directing them to release classified material they had previously determined should not be made public. (more)
The biggest mistake people make is not accepting the influence of the worker-bee career officials, operating under the leadership structure, within the bureaucracy.
Because many people do not take this into account, a tremendous amount of false-theory is cited. “Trust the plan” is perhaps the most well-known proclamation that flows as an outcropping.
There is no “plan”; there are only “goals”.
Many of the corrupt lower-level officials within the administrative state have goals in conflict with with sunlight and truthful discovery. Other officials, like FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, have more specific goals to protect their institutions. Because the preservation of the institution is the primary focus, their goals may therefore align with the more openly corrupt officials.
This is the nature of political bureaucracy. It is not a grand conspiracy, it is more often ordinary corruption. However, failure to accept this simple truism leads to cognitive dissonance, intellectual dishonesty and, even worse, creates a false perception of what is possible.
Absorb information without rational and logical discernment long enough, and you get ridiculous “Q Theories” and proclamations about grand “Stealth Jeff Sessions” plans.
AG Jeff Sessions is recused from anything to do with corruption within the 2016 election, operation ‘spygate’, operation ‘crossfire hurricane’, and the Russia investigation. The same career OLC lawyers within the system convinced Sessions of his conflicts, and have carved the Attorney General out of the investigative processes within the DOJ.
AG Sessions did not plan with President Trump for the declassification directive. Sessions is recused:
Tashina “Tash” Gauhar – Yes, the DOJ/FBI lawyer at the heart of the Clinton-email investigation; the DOJ/FBI lawyer hired by Eric Holder at his firm and later at the DOJ; the DOJ/FBI lawyer who was transferred to the Clinton probe; the DOJ/FBI lawyer at the epicenter of the Weiner laptop issues, the only one from MYE who spoke to New York; the DOJ/FBI lawyer who constructs the FISA applications on behalf of Main Justice;…. just happens to be the same DOJ/FBI lawyer recommending to AG Jeff Sessions that he recuse himself….
But wait, do you notice how Dana Boente (former interim head of DOJ-NSD) was participating with Peter Strzok’s lead DOJ aide “Tash” Gauhar in the discussion which recommended Attorney General Jeff Sessions should be recused? Sessions’ official announcement came immediately after this meeting on March 2nd, 2017.
Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente retired from the DOJ in October 2017. In January 2018, amid the beginning of the sunlight furor upon the FBI, Director Christopher Wray re-hired Dana Boente as Chief Legal Counsel for the FBI.
When all those FBI lawyers are showing up with Lisa Page, Peter Strzok and Bruce Ohr during committee hearings, and telling them not to answer questions about their contacts with the media etc. who is in charge of those FBI lawyers? The same Dana Boente.
The officials within the system of the administrative state are protecting the administrative state from scrutiny. This protectionist outlook transfers to the Inspector General, and was evidenced in how the “summary of findings” within the IG reports did not match the details of fact within 600+ pages of evidence.
Rational discernment and the application of common sense logic is important when evaluating the battle inside the executive branch of government. The institutions of the FBI and DOJ appear to have been thoroughly corrupted by political operatives; and more extreme ideologues were rewarded and promoted during the prior administration.
Many of those politicized officials within the system are still present. The election changes the leadership, but the underlying organizational corruption remains, albeit under new management.
If the goal of management to save the institution is stronger than the goal to take the institution down to brass-tacks, eliminate corruption and rebuild, then the corrupt elements are able to survive the leadership change. By all measures, this is the current status of the FBI and DOJ.
Because the corruption happened during their tenure, current officials within the FBI, DOJ and much of the larger intelligence apparatus, are not in alignment with the reform goals demanded by change-agent President Trump. Their goal is to fight Trump’s goals.
“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.”
Throughout a period from June 2017 through May 2018, CTH was optimistic the Cabinet Leadership within the DOJ and FBI would accept the scale of corruption within their institutions and embrace reform. However, as more and more tripwires were crossed; and with the scale of the corruption even more visible; and with the calendar moving forward without any action; we were forced to accept the goals of AG Sessions, DAG Rosenstein and Director Wray were not reform goals – they are preservation goals.
The lack of action from the release of the prior two IG reports; the inability of the FBI to even acknowledge the severity within the May 2018 report on FBI misconduct; and the compounded issues surrounding the DOJ and FBI approach toward admitted classified intelligence leaker James Wolfe; leads only to one possible conclusion. The downstream consequences of the corruption are so entirely devastating, the sunlight is actually a risk – and must therefore be ‘managed’.
Conversely, outside the executive branch there are voices in congress holding no vested interest in the systemic corruption, and therefore they are in alignment with President Trump’s demands.
The executive branch is holding Trump hostage and trying to wait out the election hopeful to have a change in congressional power. This preserves their institutions and executes their goals. It is the legislative branch who are trying to help the President and force the officials within the cabinet to admit the corruption.
