Kash Patel FBI Director: Wrecking Ball in Trump's Front Pocket Duck & Cover

Trump's slime deep & wide from the top down

(America's Democracy Days are Numbered)

Super outstanding article from LAWFARE in part about Kashyap “Kash” Patel as Director of the FBI – (edited and formatted with key parts to fit the blog) with this headline from the original article):

“The Situation: The Patel Paradox”

(Written by: Benjamin Wittes (Monday, December 2, 2024)

Patel or anyone can’t consent to impeachable abuses and then object to impeachable abuses. Without going into a whole lot of details, let’s just say that Patel believes that the FBI needs to be redone root and branch.

1. He wants most of FBI headquarters disbanded and sent out in the field.

2. He wants everyone associated with the Russia investigation, which he considers a malicious hoax, fired and prosecuted.

3. He wants the FBI to go after Trump’s enemies. 

4. He wants the FBI brought “to heel” on Trump’s behalf.

5. He wants the D.C. headquarters turned into a museum to the deep state.

6. He wants to stock the DOJ with Trump loyalists.

7. He’s even suggested that the FBI should reduce its intelligence operations, a central part of its mandate. 

Trump has been incredibly unsubtle about what he’s after here with his enemy within comments. 

Remember the threats to put Liz Cheney in jail? 

Or his suggestion that cheating poll workers and election officials be prosecuted? 

Or his promises of retribution against district attorneys like Fani Willis and Alvin Bragg?  

Indeed, Trump has never made the slightest pretense of believing that law enforcement should be apolitical — not even when he named Patel to be FBI director. 

In his statement on Truth Social, Trump explicitly mentioned that Patel “played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”

Trump will have to remove FBI Director Christopher Wray and replacing him with Patel in order to commit these abuses. He makes no attempt to hide it.

Patel, for his part, has similarly been nothing but explicit about what he wants to do. The Washington Post compiled this helpful montage of video clips of what he has said about going after journalists: “We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice.” 

In other words, a president-elect who has been explicit and consistent for the past nine years about going after his political opponents and critics using federal law enforcement has decided to remove the FBI director (one he appointed, by the way) and replace him with a man who has been similarly explicit about his plans to pursue the president-elect’s political enemies, protect him from investigations, and go after journalists. 

That’s the first key element of the Patel Paradox. 

When Trump talks about going after the “enemy within” and he specifically mentions Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi, this is pure political retaliation — and nothing more elevated than that.

When he talks about investigating Liz Cheney or larding the FBI and DOJ Trump loyalists, there is no “reform” at issue. There is just revenge for political opposition and professionalism — and building an institution capable of delivering that revenge.

Elements in building a law enforcement cadre to maliciously target with selective investigation and prosecutions one’s political opponents and critics is not merely a garden-variety abuse. It is a textbook impeachable abuse. Trump in his candor about his aspirations in announcing his intention to commit offenses a reasonable Congress would find impeachable.

This brings us to the second paradox. Senators have a veto. They know who Patel is; they know who Trump is; and, they know precisely why Trump wants to oust Wray in favor of Patel. There is no resolution of the Patel Paradox. You can’t consent to impeachable abuses and then object to impeachable abuses.

Trump and Patel have left senators no plausible deniability. Because they are not, in fact, talking about reform. The arsonists are promising only arson. They just spell it with an “r.”

My 2 Cents: The original article is intact at the link above and here.

Trump’s “Dictator Only on Day One” (PBS report is here) and my related posts can be seen here and here and several other links therein, and boy oh boy, it’s gonna be one helluva awful horrible sickening day, too.

I truly fear for our national survival and way of life for the first time ever in my entire adult life.

Thanks for stopping by.