The Problem Posed by the FBI
Why people distrust the FBI in the wake of the raid on Donald Trumps home, and how to fix it
One week ago today, former President Donald Trump revealed to the world that his Florida residence, Mar-A-Lago, was raided by the FBI, saying “These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.” in a statement1. This news came as a shock to most of the country, drawing outrage from both sides of the aisle, with people like former New York governor Andrew Cuomo (D), Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R), founder of the Forward Party and former Democratic presidential nominee Andrew Yang, and founder of The Daily Wire Ben Shapiro criticizing the raid. On the day of the raid, the Associated Press reported this as the reason for the raid:
[It is] part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence, people familiar with the matter said, a dramatic and unprecedented escalation of law enforcement scrutiny of the former president.2
After the raid, Attorney General Merrick Garland moved to unseal the search warrant issued for the raid on Trumps home, one Trump approved. The warrant covers the following items:
All physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 793, 2071, or 1519, including the following
a. Any physical documents with classification markings, along with any containers/boxes (including any other contents) in which such documents are located, as well as any other containers/boxes that are collectively stored or found together with the aforementioned documents and containers/boxes;
b.. Information, including communications in any form, regarding the retrieval, storage, or transmission ofnational defense information or classified material;
c. Any government and/or Presidential Records created between January 20.2017, and January 20, 2021; or
d. Any evidence ofthe knowing alteration, destruction, or concealment of any government and/or Presidential Records, or of any documents with classification markings3
The items seized included several documents and boxes of documents that were either undescribed or redacted in the public release, along with correspondence between President Trump and other world leaders, such as French President Emanuel Macron.
The fallout from the raid is still ongoing, and it is steering the nation in the wrong direction.
Overall public trust in the FBI has fallen 13% between 2019 and 20214. The distrust has only grown among Trump supporters, with everyone right-of-center condemning the raid, from politicians to political pundits, to everyday Americans. This shows that one side of the political aisle (half the country) doesn’t trust the enforcement arm of its government. That is dangerous. The main purpose of the FBI is to ensure the safety of the American people, and to protect us from interstate threats, and to enforce federal law.
This distrust is spread and further increased by articles like this one by former Lieutenant Governor of New York Betsy McCaughey (R) titled Why We Can’t Trust the FBI After its Long History of Political Meddling. In it she lists the long history of FBI corruption, from targeting isolationist politicians during the FDR Administration, and vehemently trying to discredit Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement, to the failed investigation into Trump collusion with Russia after the 2016 Presidential election5. This opinion article in the New York Post is widely spread, and at the end McCaughey proposes this solution to the problems with the FBI:
The agency’s snooping powers — domestic surveillance to protect national security — should be removed from the FBI’s law enforcement duties, and located elsewhere in the executive branch. That will keep the FBI’s dirty tricks from destroying our fair elections.6
This is a popular idea in the mainstream political Right today. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) issued this call today:
Senator Paul in many ways is right.
The FBI is one of the most powerful institutions in the country. The FBI has the power to investigate, surveil, arrest, and restrict the rights of anyone in the country. The FBI is also incredibly corrupt. The FBI over the past six years has executed a political witch hunt against President Trump. The FBI illegally and secretly investigated and wiretapped Trump and his aides, knowingly using false information to get a warrant to surveil Trump. These events have discredited the FBI on a massive scale. We have gotten to a point to where an entire political party has no trust in the FBI.
But the major danger in this distrust is in political extremism. Already, far-right factions have issued call of violence and threatened civil war over the raid. In Ohio, there was a bomb threat outside of a FBI office. This is detrimental. We have seen time and time again that political extremism is the last thing this country needs right now. From Qanon groups to Antifa to even the Ku Klux Klan of the twentieth century, political extremists have only worked to harm the stability of the country.
The FBI has left itself with two options. The first is to try and rebuild credit. Conduct a massive audit of the organization and/or a cleanse of the upper ranks. Quit conducting operations that are politically motivated or even be as such. Show the restraint President Trump did when he elected not to go after Hillary Clinton over her emails despite encouragement from his supporters. This will be a slow process, and a grueling one, but important if the FBI wants to rebuild its reputation with the American public.
The second option is to reduce its power. If the FBI can’t cleanse itself from its corruption, then Congress and the FBI should limit the power of the FBI. Follow the advice of Rand Paul and repeal the Espionage Act, and work to restore the trust of the American people in the nations domestic law enforcement unit.
In the meantime restrain from violence. While you may or may not trust the FBI, trying to bomb an office won’t do anything to help your cause. If you do trust the FBI, work and encourage the bureau and the American people to restore the trust needed. And most of all, remain civil and peaceful, and encourage others to do the same.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed please subscribe to see more, and leave a comment if you would like to share your opinion. If you would like to see more, check out this article about the raid on Mar-A-Lago. Or check out this piece on the Inflation Reduction Act. Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of your day.
Trump, Donald. “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America.” n.d. Www.donaldjtrump.com. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.donaldjtrump.com/news/news-twvnkh8p990.
“FBI Searches Trump’s Florida Estate for Classified Records.” 2022. AP NEWS. August 9, 2022. https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-fbi-search-99097089194e736315c366a0e8fbafee.
Shivaram, Deepa. 2022. “FBI Collected Multiple Sets of Classified Documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Home.” NPR, August 12, 2022, sec. Politics. https://www.npr.org/2022/08/12/1117151056/fbi-collected-multiple-sets-of-classified-documents-from-trumps-mar-a-lago-home.
“Infographic: Public Trust in the FBI.” n.d. Statista Infographics. Accessed August 15, 2022. https://www.statista.com/chart/27962/us-trust-in-the-fbi/.
McCaughey, Betsy. 2022. “We Can’t Trust the FBI after Its Long History of Political Meddling.” New York Post. August 11, 2022. https://nypost.com/2022/08/10/we-cant-trust-the-fbi-after-its-long-history-of-political-meddling/.
Ibid.