'A presidency of one': Key federal agencies increasingly compelled to benefit Trump

[Demovictory9]

Politics
‘A presidency of one’: Key federal agencies increasingly compelled to benefit Trump

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-presidency-of-one-key-federal-agencies-increasingly-compelled-to-benefit-trump/2019/10/01/f80740ec-e453-11e9-a331-2df12d56a80b_story.html

As the impeachment drama has unfolded over the past week, a series of disclosures has illuminated President Trump’s command over key federal agencies, revealing how he has compelled them to pursue his personal and political goals, investigate his enemies and lend legitimacy to his theories about the 2016 election.

The Justice Department has prioritized a probe that the president hopes will discredit a finding by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help him win. As part of that effort, Attorney General William P. Barr has met overseas with foreign intelligence officials to enlist their aid in “investigating the investigators,” as the right’s rallying cry goes, and dig into the president’s suspicions.

The State Department, meanwhile, has been investigating the email records of as many as 130 current and former department officials who sent messages to the private email account of Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and Trump’s 2016 opponent. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defied Congress on Tuesday by attempting to block the depositions of five department employees called to testify in the impeachment inquiry.


The inquiry itself was sparked by a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate unsubstantiated corruption allegations against former vice president Joe Biden, a leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, and his son.

In each of these instances, the president or administration officials have strongly defended their conduct as proper and above board.

But taken together, they illustrate the sweeping reach of Trump’s power and the culture he has spawned inside the government. The president’s personal concerns have become priorities of departments that traditionally have operated with some degree of political independence from the White House — and their leaders are engaging their boss’s obsessions.

“Barr and Pompeo are stuck in the fog machine. They seem captives of the president’s perverse worldview,” said Timothy Naftali, a historian and former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. “Authoritarian regimes have this problem all the time .?.?. when all government activity is the product of the id of the leader. But in a republic, that’s unusual.”

------

[chowder66]

1. Makes me wonder how many government people would continue to do his bidding while he orders

Americans to be rounded up and shot. Trump wanted to shoot people fleeing for their lives in the legs.
I suppose those who are good republicans soldiers would be spared and enjoy watching their fellow citizens get murdered in cold blood.

These men and women who are playing Trumps game are going to continue to do this in government and in business unless we start making examples out of each and every one of them and hold them accountable.

But I'm afraid that they will get a slap on the wrist - which they would relish - and see said punishment "or fines" as a reason to keep doing what they do. They will continue to rally with like minds and will tear this country apart from positions of power. They won't stop now that they have tasted blood.

[ffr]

3. Fully agree.

I'm more alarmed every day by the news that is uncovered.

[chowder66]

4. It's sickening. nt

[ffr]

2. Boring their roots into the people's government, like a virus.

You want to understand what tRump means by deep state, this is it. His manipulation, infiltration and purging of career professionals across all of our government agencies.

[tanyev]

5. What a stunning waste of time and money.

He got inaugurated, didn't he? He managed to survive the Mueller report. Why can't Barr and Pompeo tell him to get over it and focus on stealing 2020? Or is this connected to the sanctions on Russia--they need to be "cleared" before sanctions can be lifted?