A key FBI agent who had been assigned to investigate Hillary Clinton and later President Trump traded text messages during the 2016 election, not only showing his disdain for Trump and preference for Clinton but also cryptically expressing a need for “an insurance policy” against a Trump presidency, whatever that means.
This doesn’t prove a conspiracy either within the so-called "Deep State" or between it and Clinton, any more than the dribs and drabs leaked by the FBI to news media proves a conspiracy between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump. What it does show is that even in our intelligence agencies and at the FBI, politics is inevitable.
Understanding this, we hope editorial pages and cable news hosts will cease their pearl-clutching every time Republicans criticize the FBI or special prosecutor Robert Mueller for the way in which they are conducting their investigations and for the possibility of conflicts of interest within them. When the critics of the FBI and Mueller say the investigation is touched, perhaps tainted, by politics, they are obviously right.
The leaks themselves — they seem to occur every other day —reflect the political nature of the investigation. What the FBI agents texted about reflects how politically passionate investigators have been.
We’re not asserting that the Trump-Russia investigation is an especially political one. We’re also not saying the president should fire Mueller, which would be both unjustified and politically disastrous, inviting impeachment. The lesson is that politics creeps into federal law enforcement and intelligence, and it is disingenuous and usually partisan dishonesty to suggest that it's not so or doesn't matter.
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01.22.2025