Who will watch the watchmen?

March 2, 2023

          The Roman poet Juvenal allegedly penned the phrase, “Who will watch the watchmen?” Although Juvenal was writing about efforts to ensure marital fidelity, the phrase has since transformed into an aphorism about the need to guard against abuse of power by political leaders. Juvenal’s query applied in a multi-dimensional way to a Senate hearing today at which Merrick Garland was grilled by hostile GOP Senators about an alleged vendetta by the FBI against Trump. Based on today’s hearing, is it Garland, GOP Senators, or the FBI who need watching? Answer: Yes.

          While GOP Senators fell over one another competing for soundbites deemed air-worthy by Fox News, lurking beneath the histrionics were serious questions about whether and how the FBI is acting impartially to investigate violations of US law. The FBI was born in controversy, endured a half-century adolescence as the private police force of a flawed and vengeful Director, suffered through internal espionage scandals, and did the bidding of (or protected) two of the most corrupt presidents in our history.

          That is a lot of baggage to overcome, but most Americans (70%) have a favorable view of the FBI—considerably more favorable than the DOJ (54%), Congress (21%), or the Supreme Court (only 24% have “a lot” of confidence in the Court). But the last seven years have seen the FBI repeatedly succumb to partisan motivations in deciding who to investigate and what information to leak to the press.

          As Ted Cruz was lambasting Garland over an alleged FBI vendetta against Trump, the Washington Post published an article claiming that the head of the FBI field office in Washington, D.C. wanted to drop the investigation of Trump’s theft of classified documents based on Trump’s assurances that he had returned all classified documents. Trump’s assurances were proven to be a lie by the search of Mar-a-Lago that the FBI wanted to forego. See WaPo, Showdown before the raid: FBI agents and prosecutors argued over Trump. Lower-level FBI agents also expressed reservations over searching Mar-a-Lago because of potential damage to their careers or bad publicity for them or the FBI.

           Per WaPo,

Some of those field agents wanted to shutter the criminal investigation altogether in early June, after Trump’s legal team asserted a diligent search had been conducted and all classified records had been turned over.

[¶]. . . The disagreements stemmed in large part from worries among officials that whatever steps they took in investigating a former president would face intense scrutiny and second-guessing by people inside and outside the government.

[¶] . . . Prosecutors countered that the FBI failing to treat Trump as it had other government employees who were not truthful about classified records could threaten the nation’s security. As evidence surfaced suggesting that Trump or his team was holding back sensitive records, the prosecutors pushed for quick action to recover them . . . .

          Federal prosecutors eventually prevailed over the reluctance of FBI agents. The prosecutors were vindicated when the search revealed that Trump was lying to the FBI and obstructing justice by withholding records subject to a lawful subpoena.

          If the FBI’s reluctance to act because of political pressure was a single event, it might not be cause for concern. But Trump battered the FBI’s vaunted independence so thoroughly that it has been cowed by his threats. Even before Trump took office, the FBI’s field office was leaking damaging information to the NYTimes about its investigation of Hillary Clinton while simultaneously telling the Times (falsely) that it found “no clear link to Russia” in an investigation of the Trump campaign. See NYTimes (11/1/2016), Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia - The New York Times.

The juxtaposition of those leaks regarding Clinton and Trump by the FBI may have helped sway the election to Trump.

          Other odd instances of FBI passivity remain unexplained. To this day, the FBI has not completed an internal review of its failure to act on streams of intelligence suggesting the likelihood of violence on January 6^th. A new GAO report released in February 2023 lists the following as its top recommendation:

          The Director of the FBI should assess the extent to which and why personnel did not process information related to the events of January 6 according to policy.

          What??? More than two years after the January 6^th insurrection and the FBI has not completed (or started?) a review of its intelligence failures regarding the worst instance of domestic terrorism in our history? Why not? One possible explanation is that the FBI does not want to know the answers about its failure to act because they may reveal partisan sympathy for Trump as the root cause.

There are other possible answers, including sloth, negligence, hubris, indifference, or incompetence. The fact that none of the answers will burnish the FBI’s legacy is no ground for inaction in identifying the root cause of the intelligence failure on January 6th.

          I try not to fall into conspiracy-style thinking, and I recognize that FBI Director Christopher Wray has generally appeared to be even-handed and fair in his administration of the FBI. But his appearance on Fox News the day after the DOE report about the possible source of Covid being a lab leak in China was reckless. Fox News is an anti-vaxxer organization and fount of disinformation regarding Covid. Wray’s appearance on Fox did not explain any of the nuances regarding conflicting intelligence assessments over the origins of Covid and created the misimpression that the question is now settled. It is not. But Fox thinks it is and has told its viewers so. See Fox News,  COVID lab leak theory appears vindicated after Energy Department report: ‘They censored us, trashed us’.

          Worse, in sloppy language, Wray suggested that the virus leak and subsequent deaths of millions of Americans were “precisely what that capability was designed for.” See Talking Points Memo, We’ve Seen This Movie Before. Wray said,

So here you’re talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab that killed millions of Americans and that’s precisely what that capability was designed for.

          So, is Wray suggesting that China “designed” the virus to kill millions of Americans? Maybe, maybe not. The “capability” he describes could also be a reference to the FBI's capability to investigate the origins of new viruses. The point is that Wray chose Fox News of all places to spout off about a politically divisive, disinformation-prone topic when he has other, more urgent tasks at hand (like figuring out why the FBI sat on information about likely violence on January 6^th).      

          I have strayed far afield from the grilling Merrick Garland received in the Senate on Wednesday. But my point is that the FBI has brought upon itself much of the scrutiny that is falling on the DOJ as the FBI’s parent agency. Republicans may be correct that the FBI has acted with political bias in the last six years—but they have turned that bias on its head. The FBI seems to be a nest of support for Trump, a fact that explains many of the controversial decisions the FBI made over the last six years.

          To end where I began, “Who is watching the watchmen?”

How to persuade advertisers to stop supporting Fox News.

          In response to news of Rupert Murdoch’s testimony admitting Fox promoted Trump’s lies that Fox on-air entertainers knew to be false, a reader pointed me to a terrific resource to help convince advertisers to stop supporting Fox’s online news operation. Here is a note from the reader:

Please check out this link to Check My Ads here https://checkmyads.org/fox/

Check My Ads (CMA) is a website run by 2 amazing young women with an easy system to take down misinformation on the internet. CMA tracks which businesses advertise on websites that promote misinformation and hate speech. CMA then notifies its users of the information necessary to send an email or letter to the advertisers to inform them that their products are being used to support insurrectionists, white nationalists, election deniers, and others who seek to undermine democracy by spreading disinformation. Most businesses do not want their ads to appear on controversial websites, so they are happy to quickly remove them, and thus their funding from these sites. However, with the way advertising works these days, these businesses do not know where their ads are appearing.

          I urge you to watch the three-minute video at the Check MyAds website, Defund Fox News (checkmyads.org). The video persuaded me to sign up to take a daily action to send an email to an advertiser who may not know their ads are being placed to support Fox’s lies and hate speech.

Grassroots effort in Texas to allow citizens to enact laws through the initiative process.

          A reader from Texas sent me this important note about an effort by Texas citizens to reclaim their ability to shape the laws of Texas. The effort to empower Texans to pass laws through an initiative process could go along way to correcting the abusive control by a gerrymandered GOP majority in the Texas legislature. Here is what the reader said:

There is a critical piece of legislation making its way through the 88th Legislature: SJR 25, a joint resolution filed by Sen. Nathan Johnson, which will enable statewide citizen ballot initiatives and referendums in Texas. 

Described by some as a “critical safety valve for effective citizenship,” statewide citizen ballot measures will give Texans a more direct say in our democracy and the issues that affect our lives on a daily basis. 

Texans should have the right to vote on whether or not abortion is available in Texas, if Medicaid should be expanded, if school vouchers should divert taxpayer funds from public education, and if the age to purchase assault weapons should be raised. Right now, it’s clear the views of most in our Legislature do not align with the views of most Texans, but with statewide citizen ballot measures we can put forth these initiatives ourselves!

For details on SJR 25, here is a link to the actual text:

https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/SJ00025I.pdf#navpanes=0

Engagement and training opportunity.

Field Team 6 has organized a Register Democrats Summit 2023, which will include dozens of virtual seminars, panel discussions, presentations, and motivational speeches by dozens of organizers, activists, and politicians—including Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Ben Wikler, Paula Poundstone, Victor Shi, and me! (I will speak at 12:00 Noon).

          Attendance is free! The event will be held on March 16, 2023, from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM Pacific. Check out details and sign up here: Register Democrats Summit 2023 · Field Team 6 (mobilize.us)

Founding Members Zoom Conference.

          Reminder to Founding Members: There will be a monthly Zoom Conference on Thursday, March 2^nd at 4:00 PM Pacific / 7:00 PM Eastern. I will send a reminder email in the morning with dial-in information.

Concluding Thoughts.

          I received dozens of emails from readers worried (or outraged) about a bill introduced in the Florida legislature that would effectively disband the Democratic Party in Florida. The “The Ultimate Cancel Act” would disband any party that “previously advocated for, or been in support of, slavery or involuntary servitude.” Of course, during the Civil War era, the Democratic Party in Florida advocated for the continued existence of slavery and, therefore, would be dissolved by the legislation.

          We have watched in disgust as Republicans became experts in the art of performative cruelty. With the Ultimate Cancel Act, they are entering new territory—“performative idiocy.”

          The bill is plainly unconstitutional and would be invalidated immediately. But more importantly, there would be no surer way to rally and unify Democrats in Florida and across the nation than by attempting to disband the Democratic Party in Florida. The move would destroy Ron DeSantis’s delusions of becoming president, and he would never sign it. The idea is so bad that it almost surpasses Senator Rick Scott’s proposal to sunset Social Security and Medicare every five years.

          Should we be outraged? Of course! Should we ignore the bill? No! Should we be worried? No! Instead, we should be motivated, fortified, energized, and galvanized. We should shout from the rooftops to alert all Americans to the kernel of truth that is buried deep in the bill: That Republicans in Florida aspire to be dictators and tyrants who are following the playbook of dictators and tyrants everywhere—outlawing opposing political parties. Do not be afraid or alarmed. Be motivated and relentless in stopping the GOP threat to democracy!

          Talk to you tomorrow!