Three pieces on the problems with federal law enforcement, and on why we can say hooray that Wray is leaving, but why we should feel no bond with Bondi. (As usual, to read the entire version of each piece, follow the link embedded in each headline.)
{NOTE: LONG BUT IMPORTANT ESSAY:} There is a serious rot within federal law enforcement (Dec. 9): Set aside the question of whether President-elect Donald Trump chose good nominees to lead the FBI and Department of Justice (he hasn’t). Either way, those national law enforcement behemoths have become abusive. They desperately need reform.
For one example of their abusiveness, I report here for the first time about an unforgivable investigation under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, one of several outrageous ones of which I am aware, that shows why it should be easier to punish agents and prosecutors who improperly exploit their vast power to harass victims and even ruin lives.
This particular case comes against a backdrop of long-standing problems with prosecutorial abuses combined with a massive politicization, usually for leftist or Democratic ends, within the federal leviathan. Indeed, even during Republican administrations going back decades, the ranks of “career” employees at the DOJ have been manned by hugely disproportionate amounts of people from the Left rather than the Right.
I’ve written about prosecutorial foul play and what’s known as “overcriminalization” for years….
Pam Bondi looks like an unfit choice for Attorney General (Dec. 10): [First, some background: In 2016, I commissioned ace investigative reporter Eddie Curran of Mobile to do a story on a different topic, but he came back instead with a superb expose on a different topic, the fraudulent Trump University, putting that story back on the national map. President-elect Trump appears now to be rewarding someone who tried to cover it up.]
NEW COLUMN STARTS HERE: Republican senators have been far too quick to embrace the nomination of Pam Bondi, former attorney general of Florida, to be the U.S. attorney general. Bondi’s record is problematic.
And that’s putting it mildly….
Bondi’s integrity, though, the fitness of her character, is indeed likely to come under serious scrutiny. The scrutiny is definitely warranted, especially since the justifiable questions all revolve around her record of servile obedience to the president-elect, Donald Trump, who has nominated her…..
The welcome departure of FBI’s disgraceful Chris Wray (Official Washington Examiner editorial, Dec. 12):
Few exiting officials merit fiercer censure than FBI Director Christopher Wray, who is resigning three years early. In an extraordinarily scathing letter, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) rightly provided it.
Wray has been a dissembler since he took over the bureau in 2017. He came into office promising transparency, candor, competence, depoliticization, and systemic reform. He has produced none of it, acting instead as an obfuscator and excuse-maker, as if his job is to be the FBI’s corner-cutting defense attorney. As this newspaper and its columnists have detailed repeatedly, Wray has shown that neither his word nor his judgment can be trusted….
