A showdown between Barr and the IC? I doubt it.
by digby
Natasha Bertrand at Politico reports:
President Donald Trump’s declassification order Thursday night has set up a showdown between his own Justice Department and the intelligence community that could trigger resignations and threaten the CIA’s ability to conduct its core business — managing secret intelligence and sources.
Trump’s order directed intelligence agencies to fully comply with Attorney General William Barr’s look at “surveillance activities” during the 2016 election — a probe that Trump’s allies see as a necessary check on government overreach but that critics lambaste as an attempt to create the impression of scandal. Numerous former intelligence officials called the move “unprecedented,” saying it grants the attorney general sweeping powers over the nation’s secrets, subverts the intelligence community and raises troubling legal questions.
“There’s nothing CIA or NSA, for example, guards more jealously than sources and methods,” said Larry Pfeiffer, a 32-year intelligence veteran who served as the chief of staff to CIA Director Michael Hayden. “It is not hyperbole to say that lives are at stake.”
“I doubt any of the [CIA directors] or [directors of national intelligence] that I worked with would have sat by silently if their president contemplated or made such a decision,” added Pfeiffer, who also served as senior director of the White House Situation Room.
It’s the latest chapter in Trump’s rocky relationship with his own intelligence community. During the election, Trump cast doubt on Russia’s role in hacking Hillary Clinton’s campaign. As president, Trump has publicly disagreed with his own intelligence agencies on North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, the threat posed by the Islamic State, the situation in Afghanistan and whether the Saudi crown prince ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The two sides have usually papered over their differences, but national security veterans said this time might be different.
“I could see something of a showdown happening here, where the CIA says, ‘We’re not comfortable with the declassification of this material and we won’t provide it without the assurance that you won’t declassify it,’” said a former senior Justice Department official who served under both Trump and President Barack Obama, and requested anonymity to discuss the directive more freely. “They feel that these are their sources, their connections.” (more at the link…)
There was a time when I might have believed that. But we’ve seen that any intelligence and law enforcement employee who even expresses a suspicion that Trump and his henchmen might not be on the up and up are summarily dispatched and now they are talking about putting them in jail. There has been very little of that in recent days as a result. So, I don’t expect any of them to stand up to Barr who is clearly doing Trump’s bidding.
There are probably some different motives. Some are probably sincere Trump fans and would like to see him bring the hammer down on any liberal symps. Others are concerned for their careers and still others may believe that they will know when to make that move for the good of the country but it just isn’t the time.
Whatever the reason, I don’t expect anyone to stand up. Robert Mueller doesn’t want to testify publicly because he doesn’t want to play politics. Even he doesn’t see the seriousness of what’s happening so I can’t imagine that anyone in the IC would. Sure they’ll be unhappy about losing their sources, but they are keeping their powder dry for a time when it’s really important. And then it will be too late.
The whole point of Trump and Barr’s crusade to “investigate the investigators” is to shut these people down. I expect it will work.
The IC and the DOJ aren’t going to save the country from Trump and the reckless GOP. It’s up to the Democrats.
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