A Possible Inflection Point – ODNI Ric Grenell
President Trump appointed Richard “Ric” Grenell to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the surprise appointment begins immediately. Within minutes the media intelligence apparatus displayed apoplexy at the announcement.
All of the right administrative state interests are visibly triggered by the appointment; and it appears this could be a key turning point in President Trump’s push-back against the permanent intelligence apparatus that has targeted his administration for three years.
It does not seem accidental the appointment of Ric Grenell as Acting DNI comes after AG Bill Barr publicly displayed his weakness in managing the DOJ and FBI. When the U.S. Attorney General chooses to complain about POTUS tweets making it “impossible to do his job” via public statements, the underlying message is an AG unwilling to do his job.
The challenge for the Office of the Presidency has been executive leadership unwilling to confront visible corruption within the DOJ, FBI and Intelligence Community (IC).
Failed executive leadership includes Jeff Sessions (DOJ), Rod Rosenstein (DOJ), Chris Wray (FBI), David Bowditch (FBI), Dana Boente (FBI), Michael Horowitz (OIG) Mike Pompeo (CIA), Gina Haspel (CIA), Michael Atkinson (DOJ-NSD/ICIG), Matt Whitaker (DOJ), Dan Coats (DNI), Rex Tillerson (DoS), James Mattis (DoD), the list is long.
The evidence of ongoing efforts to undermine the presidency have surfaced in everything from the FBI not addressing rampant politicization, to an Intelligence Community Inspector General (Michael Atkinson) willing to facilitate an impeachment effort.
Further evidence of continued institutional politics is visible within the dynamics at Main Justice, and internal issues around the Roger Stone prosecution and politicized sentencing recommendation. Despite grand prose, and looking beyond words, AG Bill Barr has done little to impede ongoing corrupt endeavors within the DOJ and FBI.
He talks a good game, but actions speak louder than words.
The only corrective action taken by Bill Barr has been when a corrupt DOJ issue is so well known and unavoidable that covering up the issue is no longer an option (Liu). Despite requesting, and receiving, unprecedented executive authority to review all intelligence information and agencies (May 2019), no corrective action is visible; and, as noted in the example of the ICIG impeachment effort, the corrupt systems continue unabated.
There has been an IG report on FBI conduct showing evidence of DOJ/FBI politics in the Clinton investigation (Mid Year Exam). That report showcased members of the FBI taking gifts in exchange for media leaks; yet those leaks continue – nothing done.
There has been a scathing IG report on the action of Andrew McCabehighlighting instances of lies under oath to investigators; again – no consequences.
There has been an IG report on James Comey mishandling of classified information and illegal leaks to the media; again – nothing done. There was a separate break-out report on Comey’s creation and political use of his office and written memos stored in secret files in his home. As outlined during visits by FBI agents the FBI Director kept the memos hidden and never informed the investigators. Result: nothing done.
There has been an OIG report on FISA abuses, which overlaps all four prior DOJ-IG investigations since January 2017. That report showed the construction of specific false documentation to achieve a political agenda and illegal surveillance warrants by lawyers within the FBI…. The result, the OIG says with straight face they cannot determine if political bias was part of the motivation or decision-making; ergo, nothing done. [Yet]
It does not seem accidental executive leaders at the DOJ and FBI claim no evidence of political bias exists, while simultaneously the DOJ, FBI and IC refuse to unredact, declassify or release documents where evidence of political bias would exist.
The Office of the President has been under investigative assault for more than three years from the same highly political agencies hiding evidence of their bias. The same institutions accusing the President of abusing power, are the exact same institutions abusing power.
Worse still, the OIG FISA report is a great example of AG Barr reviewing in advance information within a report; and yet the report itself is fraught with contradictions, irreconcilable claims, examples of non-corrected abuses and was even modified after publication to remove evidence damaging to the institutions and participants.
With all of this in mind it is no surprise to see President Trump tweeting a little frustration when contrasted against another blind Attorney General praising current DOJ and FBI officials; who have done nothing, except talk, while stacks of IG reports containing evidence of corruption -from 3 years of investigation- sits on office shelves gathering dust.
Knowing an alignment of Legislative Branch and Executive Branch politicians and officials continue to work toward his removal; and understanding the same institutions that need to approve of nominations of executive officers, ex. the Senate Intelligence Committee, are the very same institutions participating in the ongoing removal effort; the dynamic of the Deep State protecting itself is very real.
The legislative branch has created an internal system of checks and balances where their oversight gets to check, approve or deny, anyone who would be a threat to their power. It really is a remarkable constitutional breakdown within the framework of government.
This is the accurate backdrop to consider President Trump appointing Ric Grenell to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. However, this appointee will now have the full and focused attention of the SSCI and Intelligence Community, the Eye of Sauron.
Those who trade the currency of power within the institutions of the deep administrative state will align in common cause against DNI Ric Grenell in the same manner they are aligned against President Donald J Trump.
Government officials, politicians, beltway media, dark money corporations, DC lobbyists, DC activists, political networks like FusionGPS and a host of intelligence community allies will immediately engage in a series of political attacks due to the risk Grenell represents.
There is no boundary to the weaponry they will deploy. There is no upper or lower limit to the lies the resistance can/will create. The DC Orcs will attack this DNI relentlessly.
History may likely identify Grenell as the first President Trump appointment who did not come from the controlled files of those around the oval office selection processes.
When CTH first used the term “Big Ugly” in 2016, it was written from the context of outsider Trump eventually having to take on the UniPartyestablishment, that includes both Democrats and Republicans. When the institutions of DC power are threatened, pretenses of political parties are dropped. Institutional preservation becomes paramount because all downstream indulgence is connected to the same trough of power.
Washington DC is a business enterprise; not a currently functioning government.
