Trump's Latest FBI Attack Stuns Justice Dept. Officials: 'We're in Venezuela'

[DonViejo]

‘You can’t overstate how critical it is that people who have information trust us to protect them,’ said a federal prosecutor, adding that Trump is working to break that trust.

BETSY WOODRUFF
HARRY SIEGEL

05.21.18 7:11 PM ET

President Donald Trump’s latest round of attacks on the FBI has left morale at the Justice Department at a new low, with officials bemoaning what they view as a full-frontal assault on their institution.

“It’s a deliberate campaign to delegitimize institutions where the people who are inside those institutions are professionals and giving up lots of money for the jobs that they’re doing and it’s extremely demoralizing,” said one current federal prosecutor.

“As my father used to say, history goes forward and backward. And things go backward when the trust in bedrock institutions—which are trustworthy, by the way—is diminished for the benefit of a few. It accelerates, and you wake up one day and we’re in Venezuela.”

Trump has been pushing a conspiracy theory that the FBI sicced a spy on his campaign during the election season. In reality, a longtime FBI informant—per numerous reports—spoke with several Trump campaign officials, including Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, and shared the information with FBI investigators. The Daily Caller reported the name of the person believed to be that informant.

more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/were-in-venezuelatrumps-latest-fbi-attack-stuns-saddens-justice-officials?ref=home

[beachbum bob]

1. the ONLY play trump (and his co-conspirators) have had is tarnish and destroy our

justice system, the FBI, our intelligence agencies...and why trump started blasting them a year before the election as HE KNEW HE be in his crap up to his neck...

the great thing is we have elections and we democrats must once again save our country....

register young people and get them out to vote

work on local democratic candidate campaigns to get them elected

no more excuses to just sit back and wring your hands or complain

republicans depend on democratic apathy and they have been right for 25 years

time to make america, america again and no amount of whining will do it, only action

[pangaia]

2. DO NOT QUIT, you guys. That's what the gangsters want.

The life of Democracy in the USA depends on you....

[Perseus]

3. That is an analogy I have been making on this site for a while

When you visit a doctor and he sees red spots on your face he/she can pretty much tell what may be going on with your health. The same happens when you have seen the tricks and methodology of a regime to undermine and destroy a democratic system, well...the symptoms in the USA are the same as there were in Venezuela 16 years ago. People saw what was happening, but they insisted that "It could not happen in Venezuela", but it did.

The same is happening here and unless the November elections has a huge turnout, that the poll machines are guarded against hacking, because THERE WILL BE HACKING, the republicans know that is the only way they will keep power and IMHO, that is the way they were able to put trump in power and take both houses, they cheated with putin's help, but there was a lot done here.

The DNC better put in place processes that protect the vote, the republicans will cheat, the russians will intervene, this is not looking good.

I don't think people know/understand all the harm and destruction that this administration has already caused to the country, and if they are let loose two more years, they will stay in power for ever. These people must be taken out of office now, they must be taken out of politics completely, the media needs to help because they will be the first ones out of a job, they will be the first who will be sacrificed by the regime, and those CEOs who laughed and profited during the elections by keeping trump on will be sorry they ever did. That is what happens when people don't take the time to evaluate consequences.

This is no joke people...

[Cosmocat]

6. Yep - if we don't at least get the House in November, in their sick minds

that will affirm to them what they have been doing, and the next two years ...

Who knows ....

[jalan48]

4. So where's the outrage by Democrats or is the media just not reporting it?

[HopeAgain]

5. The water is getting closer to the boiling point

and the frog is just sitting there.

[RKP5637]

20. That's what I always wonder, where is the outrage or is it being blocked. The dems seem to just

sit there and take it all. I don't get it.

[niyad]

7. destroying the country in plain sight, and with the approval of his deplorable base.

[spanone]

18. and his deplorable allies in congress.

[rickyhall]

8. J Edgar would have ripped this guy apart a year ago.

[rpannier]

11. Everything he had in his files would have made it to the light of day

[RKP5637]

21. He certainly would have. n/t

[krkaufman]

9. "WWPW"

When considering Trump's actions, it's always good to keep "WWPW" in mind; that is, "What Would Putin Want?"

See also: WWPP ... What Would Please Putin?

I've been surprised by a few recent stories that seemed to break with this guidance, until later reporting explained things.

e.g. Add'l Russian personnel were expelled from the country ... unexpected ... and then I later learned that Trump fumed and stopped further actions when he learned that we were expelling far more personnel than any other countries. Trump was OK with the numbers when he thought they wouldn't stand out against what everyone else was doing, what he might explain to Vlad as the bare minimum he could get away with politically.

[RVN VET71]

10. This corruption of America goes back a long way. Tim Robbins said it powerfully, years ago

https://archive.commondreams.org/views03/0416-01.htm

I came across this speech in my old, moldy print files and think it's a very telling reminder of just how long the Republicans have been trying their damnedest to destroy America. Bush's 8 years were terrible, the so-called "liberal" media failed us all then and have continued to fail us to this day. Yes, they've pointed out Trump's criminality and juvenile behavior -- but they are just waiting out there, in the ether, for the "pivot to presidential" that never quite comes. Remember the liberal media's reaction to Trump's first pseudo air-strike on Syria? If he manages to sit down with the NK madman and come away with a deal -- or even manages to reframe a failed meeting as one in which he tried but Kim just wouldn't negotiate -- the media will be behind him.

So check out Robbins' speech. He reminds us that, in the immediate aftermath of 911, America's leaders had an absolutely golden opportunity to unify the nation and create opportunities to do constructive, even empathetic things to heal the wound left by the destruction of the towers. But, of course, instead, we got an uptick in phony right wing screeds about patriotism, we got -- Tim didn't mention it -- the Dixie Chicks, for chrissakes, banned from the airwaves, and the Patriot Act, and "If you see something, say something" and the invasion of Iraq and a nation further splintering and fragmenting until, today, we have a non-President who has so exploited the fractures that we may never unite as a nation again, never.

(Tim Robbins' speech was prompted by his being banned, along with wife Susan Sarandon, from the Baseball Hall of Fame celebration of the movie Bull Durham. He was banned because the Hall of Fame President, a Reagan loyalist, deemed his politics damaging to our great nations efforts to recover from 911 by slaughtering the brown skinned civilians of Iraq and Afghanistan.)

[dlk]

12. This is What Happens When a Lifetime Criminal and Deadbeat is in The Oval Office

Realistically, what did people expect?

[homegirl]

19. This is what I have to say to too many Americans

If you didn't know what would happen-you weren't watching.

[Doitnow]

13. How about an appreciation thread for these people who are working so hard for us. Thom Hartmann

calls this Lie-Gate, not Spy-Gate.

[LiberalFighter]

14. Then the FBI needs to expose DT's history.

[McCamy Taylor]

15. Trump is a mobster. He represents criminals who hate the law.

[meow2u3]

16. Trump IS a criminal who hates the law

[LiberalLovinLug]

17. I really wish some FBI spokesperson or persons would hold a big press conference

And unequivocally state how they are all professionals, some may be Democrats, some may be Republicans, some may be neither, but they all share one goal, to work for justice, no matter where it leads. Etc etc...

[RKP5637]

22. Well said!!! n/t