WASHINGTON – This is not the country I live in.
In my country – in our country – the ruler does not call in the head of the state police and demand proof of loyalty. That is because in our country the ruler is an elected, term-limited official, and the state police is, or is supposed to be, an independent, professionalized entity.
Indeed, the FBI director is granted a 10-year term, longer than any president, not merely to constrain the director’s power (to save us from another J. Edgar Hoover) but to shield the director from being the tool of any particular president.
As Susan Hennessy, writing in Lawfare, reminded us after President Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey – just the second director fired in the history of the bureau – the 10-year term was established in the wake of Richard Nixon’s abuses of the FBI during Watergate, including an acting director who resigned after revelations that he was giving the White House daily updates on the probe and had destroyed relevant documents.
Ruth MarcusTrump, as Comey testified, pressed Comey to pledge fealty. And now we know, from The Washington Post, that Trump summoned Comey’s temporary successor, shortly after Comey’s firing, for a get-to-know-you session in which the pleasantries quickly turned sinister: Trump wanted to know whether Andrew McCabe had voted for him or for his opponent.