On the latest episode of CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Dana Bash asked Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche a good question: Why was Donald Trump involved in the FBI raid on the elections office in Fulton County, Georgia? Blanche, a former Trump defense attorney, challenged the premise of the question.
“I don’t believe he was involved,” Blanche replied.
There’s fresh evidence pointing in the opposite direction. The New York Times reported on some behind-the-scenes details on what transpired when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard personally met with FBI agents after they executed a search warrant near Atlanta.
What occurred during the meeting was even further outside the bounds of normal law enforcement procedure. Ms. Gabbard used her cellphone to call Mr. Trump, who did not initially pick up but called back shortly after, [according to three people with knowledge of the meeting].
The president addressed the agents on speakerphone, asking them questions as well as praising and thanking them for their work on the inquiry, according to three people with knowledge of the discussion.
According to the Times’ report, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, the call was “fairly short” and was similar to “a pep rally or a coach giving an encouraging halftime speech to his players.”
To briefly recap for those new to the story, the FBI’s raid execution of the search warrant last week, an obvious part of Trump’s ongoing crusade related to his 2020 election defeat, was and is tough to defend.
There’s no credible reason for federal law enforcement to seize these election materials, which have already been thoroughly scrutinized, just as there’s no reason for the FBI to act as a vehicle for the president’s discredited conspiracy theories. The fact that Gabbard, eager to work her way back into the White House’s good graces, personally participated in the raid in Georgia, added a scandalous element to a burgeoning controversy.
An NBC News report explained, “Accompanying FBI agents on a raid is unprecedented for the chief of U.S. intelligence, whose job is to track threats from foreign adversaries. In her role overseeing the country’s spy agencies, Gabbard is prohibited by law from taking part in domestic law enforcement.”
But if the Times’ reporting is correct, Trump’s attaboy phone call with the agents on hand in Fulton County removed all doubt about the brazenness of the gambit.
“Even for a president who has radically transformed the Justice Department and the F.B.I. by trampling over their political independence and using them as tools for personal retribution, Mr. Trump appears to be taking that kind of involvement to a new level,” the Times added. “Rather than going to senior department or F.B.I. officials, Mr. Trump spoke directly to the frontline agents doing the granular work of a politically sensitive investigation in which he has a large personal stake.”
So much for “I don’t believe he was involved.”
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
