Smells Like Nixon

Last week, President Trump cleared publication by Devin Nunes, the House Intelligence Committee chairman, of a four page memo claiming bias inside the FBI against the Trump administration in relation to the Russian electoral interference enquiry. In 2016, an FBI surveillance warrant was approved by the Justice Department to monitor Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser. It is alleged that to obtain the warrant, the FBI relied on material from a dossier compiled by a British spy. The dossier was partly funded by Democrats but this was not disclosed when application for the warrant was made. The President and his administration are now hoping to use this revelation to undermine the work of Robert Mueller and side-line or stop his enquiry into Russian involvement aiding Trump in the 2016 election.

I have no evidence to say whether the Republicans are right or wrong when alleging bias. Is the President justified in authorising publication of a document which is protected by national security interests? Is the FBI justified in denouncing the President’s action? Certainly, the FBI director, Christopher Wray, demonstrated his fury when he told his agents: “Talk is cheap; the work you do is what will endure. We speak through our work. One case at a time. One decision at a time.” It cannot be denied that at extreme levels, the FBI agents expose themselves to mortal danger. This cannot be said of the administration which stands accused of politicising national security. Of course, the Republicans are making the same allegation against the Democrats. However, even if the Nunes memo was taken at face value, it’s a big stretch to move from one part of the FBI wiretap allegation relied on someone politically motivated against the President to Mueller’s investigation into Russian collusion and whether Trump obstructed justice is wrong.

This is not the first time an administration has clashed publicly with its security services and the Justice Department. Dick Cheney, George W, Bush’s Vice President, was outraged when in 2003, Joseph Wilson, a diplomat and the husband of CIA agent, Valerie Plame, published an op-ed article in The New York Times, casting doubt on the then President’s claim that Saddam Hussein was seeking significant quantities of uranium from Africa. The timing was significant as the United Nations was in session, discussing whether action against Iraq was warranted to remove weapons of mass destruction.

A week later, Washington Post journalist, Robert Novak, published an article that Plame was a CIA agent and had been instrumental in sending her husband to Chad to investigate the uranium claims. Subsequently, the administration was forced to admit that Novak had been told of Plame’s employment with the CIA by a state department official, Richard Armitage. In outing Plame, many other CIA agents and their sources found their lives in peril. Eventually, Scooter Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff, fell on his sword and took responsibility. He was imprisoned but soon reprieved by Bush.

Arguably a better analogy of unwarranted administration interference is the so-called Saturday Night Massacre in October, 1973, when President Nixon fired Attorney General Elliott Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Rucklehaus for refusing to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Cox had been appointed by Nixon in the aftermath of the Watergate break-in and ensuing scandal. During the Senate hearings into the affair, the Oval Office taping system was disclosed. Cox issued a subpoena, asking the President for copies of some tapes. Nixon refused to comply, claiming executive privilege, but he offered a compromise – the Stennis Compromise – where US Senator Stennis would review and summarise the tapes. Cox rejected the offer for reasons which included the fact that Stennis was virtually deaf.  

The following day, Nixon ordered Cox’s firing. When Richardson and Rucklehaus refused the order, the Solicitor General, Robert Bork, carried it out. Subsequently, Nixon was forced to appoint another special prosecutor who chased after the tapes. Their eventual disclosure nailed Nixon. As for Bork, he was nominated by Reagan for a vacant seat on the Supreme Court. The Senate rejected him. What goes around, comes around.

I distinguish the Cheney and Nixon events from Iran Contra under Reagan where there was no cover up, although there were strong grounds to impeach the President, and Clinton’s Whitewatergate and Lewinsky, where again there was no cover up, the President seeking to protect disclosures about his private life.

The common features in the Cheney and Nixon events is administrations seeking to denigrate a story that it perceives as detrimental and to cover up wrongful and illegal acts. Those Presidents and Vice Presidents initiating the unlawful acts were vindictive and believed the rule of law did not apply to them. I know I should not judge the Trump administration yet for its current actions about the Russian business and that comment is fruitless until the eventual outcome is known. However, there is a bad odour in D.C. When there is a bad smell, you ignore it at your peril.

 

President Trump aka Dopey has ordered a military parade. Will Disney advise the Joint Chiefs of Staff as to content? Maybe it will be led by Mickey Mouse, a close relation of Dopey.