Trump’s FBI Is Investigating the Former CIA and FBI Directors in a Pure Act of Retribution

Look! Over there! A snipe! From The New York Times:

John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director and a harsh critic of his Democratic-appointed predecessors, has made a criminal referral of Mr. Brennan to the F.B.I., accusing him of lying to Congress, officials said. The bureau is also scrutinizing Mr. Comey for his role in the Russia investigation, other officials said, although the exact basis for any inquiry remains unclear. Even if it is unclear whether the moves will lead to charges, they are among the most significant indications that President Trump’s appointees intend to follow through on his campaign to exact retribution against his perceived enemies. That includes people leading the investigation into what he has repeatedly denounced as the “Russia hoax” nine years ago and officials involved in two failed federal prosecutions of Mr. Trump during the Biden years.

Apparently, the phrase “actions of an authoritarian madman” was accidentally dropped at the copy desk.

To be honest, and in ordinary times, I wouldn’t really care what happened to either man. Comey screwed up the 2016 election and thus is responsible for most of his own current peril. And Brennan was central to the CIA’s covering up torture programs around the world against the Congress and the scrutiny of the people who paid the bills for it and had their country’s honor destroyed by it. So, yeah, fck that guy eternally.

But these are not ordinary times, so we are compelled to point out, even if the Times won’t, that these “investigations” are the actions of an authoritarian madman. There is no legal point to them. There are no real crimes to be investigated. It’s hard to believe they could even get an indictment out of a grand jury made up of sentient primates, let alone a conviction from a trial jury. But that’s not the point of this useless exercise. The announcement of an “investigation” is all that matters. And any actual investigating that does go on will have as its only aim the harassment and economic damage to the alleged “defendants.” So, for the moment, I will give a considerable damn about the fate of James Comey and John Brennan, who still owe all of us profound apologies.