Tis the season for Show Trials by the Actors whose Method is like the last Kindergarten play you attended
The one with the tone deaf organist
Today in the House:
REPORTER: Today's hearing is about how the FBI is politicized, but do you think it's appropriate for some of these whistleblowers to be paid by one of Trump's former advisers?
JIM JORDAN: They got a family! How are they supposed to feed their family?
Jim Jordan (R-OH) heads the Weaponization of Government Subcommittee in the House. The purpose of the committee is to promote the false claim that President Biden and other Democrats have been improperly using the FBI, CIA, other Intel agencies, the Dept of Justice, the State Dept, and I dunno, maybe Disneyworld, drag queens, Dr. Fauci, George Soros, late night talk show hosts and yo mama to attack that model of grace and prudence, DJ Trump.
As I recall, they claimed to have 10 whistleblowers they were relying on to make their case. This week, they claim all their whistleblowers have disappeared on other things , like Hunter Biden’s laptop, and all they have left is one.
As far as today’s show trial about the FBI, it’s already known that one of Trump’s former advisers (aka: mook) is financially supporting one or more of the whistleblowers.
Today, committee Democrats are asking why House Rules are steadily being broken, especially why information that should be public is being hidden. Jordan’s claiming the FBI has retaliated against a whistleblower so he or she has no income to survive on. And he’s refusing to answer most of the Democrats’ questions by ignoring them and recognizing the next speaker in line to speak.
The NY Times reported yesterday that three agents have had their security clearances revoked and the subhead says “At least two of the three agents are scheduled to testify on Thursday to a House panel investigating what Republicans contend is the “weaponization” of federal agencies against conservatives.”
What appears to be going on is the FBI is taking normal disciplinary steps against agents that have broken laws, and at least two of these guys took part in the January 6 insurrection. It’s also worthy of note that the FBI - 115 years old - has only had Republican directors and still does today.
Per the NY Times:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has revoked the security clearances of three agents who either took part in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, or later expressed views about it that placed into question their “allegiance to the United States,” the bureau said on Wednesday in a letter to congressional investigators.
The letter, written by a top official at the F.B.I., came one day before at least two of the agents — Marcus Allen and Stephen Friend — were set to testify in front of a House Judiciary subcommittee investigating what Republicans contend is the “weaponization” of the federal government against conservatives.
For several months, Republican lawmakers have been courting F.B.I. agents who they believe support their contentions that the bureau and other federal agencies have been turned against former President Donald J. Trump and his supporters both before and after the Capitol attack.
Some of the agents have come forward as self-described whistle-blowers and taken steps like writing a letter to the leaders of the F.B.I. complaining about ways in which the bureau has discriminated against conservatives.
The agents who had their security clearances revoked — Mr. Allen, Mr. Friend and a third man, Brett Gloss — have all been suspended by the F.B.I. as the bureau reviews their cases, according to congressional investigators.
A top FBI official notified Jordan of the disciplinary actions being taken and the reasons for them.
While he has not been charged with any crimes, Mr. Gloss was found by the F.B.I. to have provided “false and/or misleading information” about what he saw on Jan. 6 and about whether he was in a restricted area that day, according to the letter, which was sent to Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and the chairman of the weaponization subcommittee, by Christopher Dunham, the F.B.I.’s acting assistant director.
Mr. Gloss denied witnessing violence or being in the restricted area at the Capitol, but those statements were inconsistent with photographs he took on Jan. 6 as well as with publicly available videos, the letter said. Mr. Gloss also failed to report his presence near the Capitol, the letter added, even after being warned by one of his supervisors to do so.
“Mr. Gloss’s refusal to provide full, frank and truthful answers to lawful questions of security officials in connection with a personnel security or trustworthiness determination should result in an adverse clearance action,” the letter said.
The FBI is contending that the trio either participated in the insurrection or hindered the subsequent investigations of insurrectionists. Providing false testimony to superiors or peers, trying to get investigations killed, that sort of stuff.
A lot of the claims and counterclaims originated last December with a letter the disgruntled agents sent.
As with any business or agency, the FBI has made notable mistakes over the years, but this time, the ‘whistleblowers’ appear to be covering up their own mistakes by utilizing the politics of the moment, appealing to pro-Trump partisans in the House.
And Big Media, like the NY Times, often ignores providing context about the players. In that last link they included this, for example:
“The FBI is the largest criminal gang in the country,” the right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza recently wrote on Twitter, adding, “It’s America’s version of the KGB or the Chinese state police.”
The missing context? D’Souza was convicted of a campaign finance felony who was subsequently pardoned by Trump. Known for his quackumentaries full of conspiracy theories and outright lies, quoting him at all is akin to seeking out the opinion of Joseph Goebbels on Jewish religious practices.
But the show trial of Jordan and his cronies must go on!
At least two of the whistleblowers are being supported by Kash Patel, a lawyer with a reputable background before he was groomed by Rep Devin Nunes to become a full blown Trump toady. Running backchannel conversations with Rudy Giuliani and Trump while Trump was being impeached for withholding aid to Ukraine illegally is now part of his resume, despite his public denials. He also is a heavy user of the Fifth Amendment to cover his tracks.
Patel, the whistleblowers, D’Souza and others are part of the Elon Musk choir complaining about conservatives being censored on social media. Most of the censoring occurred because of the bloody January 6th insurrection and the ongoing lies about the 2020 election. The deliberate lies and conspiracy theories about the covid pandemic has also drawn some social media oversight pushback.
So two highly unusual and deadly events that social media guys tried to mitigate to reduce future fatalities are what Jordan and his fellow mooks will continually cite to justify unethical and illegal actions by Trump and his hardcore supporters.
The overriding theme is still Omerta, the code of silence mobsters rely on. Loyalty to their Fraudfather is the only virtue. Not service to the country, the constitution, or the law.
Jim Jordan used Omerta when covering for the sexual predator doctor, Richard Strauss, at Ohio State who regularly abused college wrestlers, so he’s well-practiced at the art.
Today, Jordan’s breaking House Rules. He’s only permitting committee Republicans to have access to information that normally precedes witness testimony.
The big question is not whether the FBI is acting properly in its normal disciplinary procedures. The bigger question is why the Republican Party is no longer able to recruit lawful, ethical and logical people to run for office and feels it absolutely has to rely on shady mooks and crooks.
Elsewhere, another shady deadly character, Erik Prince, whose mercenary forces (formerly known as Blackwater) were involved with torture and deadly atrocities in Iraq and elsewhere, is in trouble again. Not exactly fresh trouble, since the claims against him originated in 2018.
It’s alleged he was illegally peddling arms to Libya in the Austrian indictment announced yesterday. Prince is another rich lad set loose on America by his right wing extremist dad, complete with the inherited wealth. Much like his sister, Betsy DeVos, who married into the pyramid scheming Amway pushing family before committing herself to wreck public schools and send the higher income kids to charter schools for their proper introduction to and indoctrination into their Lord, the Second Amendment.
Prince’s death dealing services get used around the globe by fascists and monarchy and presidents alike. But he’s also quite political as he quietly funded Project Veritas, a group known for fake journalism exposes that rely ontrick questions and fancy editing to say ‘Gotcha’ to anyone more liberal than Genghis Khan.
I trust you’re aware not to hold your breath for this one to play out. Prince is publicity shy and typically reaches quiet settlements that make prosecutors go away.
Plus ‘swift’ and ‘justice’ separated long ago for billionaires as is obvious to all by now.
What billionaires want, they get. Supreme Court justices, war crimes, heavier gun sales, insurrections, House subcommittees, you name it. Like Trump, if he ever has to appear in a court, he’ll get a hand slap. The only different is Prince is smarter and isn’t gonna convict himself with his own words, as Trump often does.
Salman Rushdie spoke out after many months recuperating from the attack that partially blinded him.
“we live in a moment, I think, at which freedom of expression, freedom to publish has not in my lifetime been under such threat in the countries of the West.”
“Now I am sitting here in the U.S., I have to look at the extraordinary attack on libraries, and books for children in schools,” he said. “The attack on the idea of libraries themselves. It is quite remarkably alarming, and we need to be very aware of it, and to fight against it very hard.”
His long fight to write freely used to be attacked by an Ayatollah in Iran. The US used to be a place of refuge for people like him. But the Musks, Trumps, Princes and Jordans have changed what censorship is. Any critique of a conservative, insurrectionist or fascist is now punishable by anyone Prince and the NRA make their living from.
Whatever makes Rhonda Santis happy is all the freedom we get now. (Warning: that last link is very unsettling)
Or maybe…..
Just close the popup and see if Rep Richie Torres has a better American justice in mind.