Briefly Noted: The Trouble At The FBI

Readers who started with the original Meaning in History blog (it’s still there, and searchable) will recall that I was fond of referencing Bill Haydon’s views, as expressed in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Haydon maintained to George Smiley—while being debriefed before being shipped off to Russia—that the health of an intelligence service is a good measure of the health of a society. I used that view to express my own view with regard to the US Intel Community and the health of American society. After all, now that the only standard left—as it seems—for employment is to not being convicted of a felony. Moral and ethical standards of character are considered discriminatory and non-diverse, and have been replaced by formalistic standards rather than substance based standards. In that type of society, you can expect to see this kinda stuff (h/t to a friend for the links to articles today):

Former FBI Investigator Under Scrutiny for Ties to Russian Oligarch

Charles McGonigal, the former head of counterintelligence at the FBI field office in New York City who was involved in the investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia during the 2016 election, has fallen under the scrutiny of a grand jury convened by U.S. attorneys late last year for his own ties with Russia and other foreign governments, reports Insider.

The grand jury is reportedly investigating McGonigal’s business dealings with a top aide to Oleg Deripaska, the billionaire Russian oligarch who was at the center of allegations that Russia colluded with the Trump campaign, according to a recently obtained witness subpoena. Prosecutors are also looking into whether McGonigal has ties to the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as any “payments or gifts” he was provided by the governments of Kosovo, Montenegro, and Albania. It is not clear whether McGonigal is a target of the grand-jury investigation, or simply a subject whose activities are somehow related to it. Failing to disclose activities covered by the Foreign Agents Registration Act [FARA], such as lobbying and public relations, is punishable by a $250,000 fine and up to five years in prison.

I hasten to add that I have no idea whether McGonigal is guilty of anything under the criminal law. But that’s not really the point, is it? It’s the whole ‘standards for you but not for me culture of the Deep State.’ The whole thing stinks, and it shouldn’t really matter whether or not laws were broken—this is Ethics 101.

Anyway, I want to follow up on the cultural issues I alluded to, above. Here, I’ll paste in a post from the old blog, dated 12/12/2019. Please take note of my view on problems at the FBI, which metastasized under Robert “Bob” Mueller—especially the second and third paragraphs:

FBI Reaction To Trump's Election

I knew this would be true--not all FBI agents were behind their top management's efforts to sabotage Trump. Not his campaign and not his presidency. Monica Showalter offers quotes via The Daily Beast of messages that some of these pro-Trump agents sent the morning after Trump's "surprise" victory--as quoted in the Horowitz Dossier.

I have nothing really to add. After all, this amounts to anecdotal evidence--it's not a poll of the state of mind within the FBI or anything like that. Still, it's a pretty good indication that the atmosphere in top management is somewhat rarefied. I've written in the past of the army of lawyers who, in recent decades, have been "parachuted" into top positions at the FBI, including placing former prosecutors into the Director's office. I spoke of this to Lee Smith, about the toxic, politicized, and antinomian culture that was thus imported. Smith was good enough to include my views in Chapter 15 of his book, The Plot Against The President.

As always happens, these changes in leadership also led to changes in the selection not only of agent candidates but, especially, of those who would rise through management ranks. The rise of the Strzoks and McCabes and Priestaps tells a lot about the cultural state of the FBI, in and of itself.

Showalter writes about some of this at Daily Beast reports presence of conservatives in the FBI like it's a bad thing. Note, of course, that the agents who are quoted, while apparently unapologetic, do feel embattled. Here's the quote from The Daily Beast:

The report released Monday by Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz revealed messages between several FBI employees celebrating President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory. 

One supervisory special agent wrote via instant message that he was “so elated with the election” and that watching election coverage was like “watching a Superbowl comeback.” The agent later explained his messages to Horowitz’s office, claiming that they thought Hillary Clinton would win and it was “energizing” to see Trump claim victory. “I didn’t want a criminal to be in the White House,” he said. 

Hey, that sounds perfectly reasonable to me! A lot more reasonable than the views of the Strzoks, Pages, and McCabes of the FBI world--let alone Jim "So Many Questions" Comey.

Two other FBI agents also expressed pleasure with the 2016 election results. “Shit just got real,” one employee wrote in messages uncovered by the IG report. “I saw a lot of scared MFers on... (my way to work) this morning. Start looking for new jobs fellas. Haha.” The other agent replied, “LOL.” In response, the employee remarked: “Come January I’m going to just get a big bowl of popcorn and sit back and watch.” The other agent replied: “That's hilarious!”

I have to say, I LMAOed when I read that. It gave me just a bit of hope. There's a lot of truth in Bill Haydon's observation to George Smiley that the health of the intelligence services reflects the health--or lack thereof--of a society. And that means there's a long road ahead, judging from the Horowitz Dossier.

Now, check out this excerpt from an article that appears today at the WSJ, which Mike Sylwester also pointed to.

How Robert Mueller Shredded the FBI’s Credibility

His post-9/11 attempts to change the culture led to politicized investigations like Crossfire Hurricane.

This is the author:

Mr. [Thomas J.] Baker is a retired FBI special agent and legal attaché and author of “The Fall of the FBI: How a Once Great Agency Became a Threat to Democracy,” forthcoming in December.

Legal Attachés work out of FBIHQ, so Baker probably had a pretty good glimpse of the culture at the top levels of the FBI. Note how his view dovetails with mine—I say that not to pound my chest but as an indication that the problems with Mueller’s “reforms” were there for anyone to see. And that would include Mueller’s enablers in Congress. You can agree or disagree with Baker’s views on specific incidents, but I would argue 1) that from an organizational standpoint his critique is correct, and 2) that the source of these problems are cultural, and can be traced to the aftermath of the 1960s.

But Mr. Mueller wanted centralization. He wanted all information to run through FBI headquarters, which would make all the decisions. ...

Penttbom would thus become the first case in FBI history run from headquarters. It set a bad precedent, which would yield poisonous fruit in the Hillary Clinton email investigation and then in the Russian collusion fiasco, when a small clique at headquarters called all the shots.

Mr. Mueller made other moves to change the FBI’s culture, which had negative consequences. Replacing agent executives, he brought in outside professionals to take over key headquarters positions—perhaps enhancing short-term technical proficiency in those positions but losing long-term commitment and an invaluable knowledge of the institution and its culture. The outsiders didn’t have the institutional knowledge of career agents.

During the directorships of Mr. Mueller and his successor, James Comey, nonagents ran the FBI’s public-affairs and congressional-affairs offices and served as its general counsel. These are precisely the positions in which the ugliness of Crossfire Hurricane and its aftermath eventually manifested itself. ...

The change in FBI culture initiated by Mr. Mueller after his September 2001 experience with Mr. Bush led directly to today’s problematic FBI. Director Christopher Wray, or his successor, must turn the FBI back into a “swear to tell the truth” law enforcement agency.

The bottom line is that the rot is now systemic, and you can see that from the day to day stories of how a politicized FBI is now being used to prop up a corrupt regime by harassing dissenters and political opponents. Including President Trump. What’s perhaps most disturbing is to see that the GOPe is willing to keep this going on if that’s what it takes to thwart Trump—without a thought for the country’s welfare.