The Establishment’s Response to Trump’s Threat to Political Corruption (Part II)

Commentary

The reality is that the intelligence community, the Obama administration, and the political establishment never expected Trump to win in 2016. And when he did win, the intelligence community was suddenly faced with a very real problem. How do they cover up their actions? Their answer was to set out to destroy Trump’s presidency. Or at least fatally hobble, even cripple, the new Trump administration.

As I wrote in the first part of this article, the timeline of the establishment’s actions in the first few months of 2017 tells the story of an establishment response to the very real threat that the young Trump administration presented to the long-standing, and corrupt, political structure of our nation. 

By way of a quick recap, events were set in motion during a Jan. 5, 2017, meeting in President Barack Obama’s office that included FBI Director James Comey, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, Vice President Joe Biden, and Susan Rice. Comey’s first action was to tell Congress on Jan. 10 that he could neither confirm nor deny an investigation into Trump—despite privately telling Trump that he was not under investigation. But it was Jan. 12 that marked some of the most crucial events that would shape things to come.

On that day, Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz announced his initiation of a review of actions taken by the FBI in the leadup to the 2016 presidential election. This announcement was not publicized and only became public knowledge almost a year later. It now appears that his investigation was intended to tie up or prevent any real investigation of the actions taken by the DOJ and the intelligence community for years. Jan. 12 also marked the date of the first renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant on Trump campaign adviser Carter