In another indication that Donald Trump is a wannabe dictator, he ordered the U.S. intelligence community on Thursday to cooperate with a new investigation to investigate the investigators who looked into his corrupt 2016 campaign.
“Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 Presidential election,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement shared on Trump’s Twitter feed.
The statement added, “The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation.”
“Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities….
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— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019
….during the 2016 Presidential election. The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019
….Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions.†@PressSec
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019
Rachel Maddow reported more on Thursday:
Rachel Maddow reports on the news that Trump is ordering the intel community to cooperate with Barr’s new investigation into how the Russia probe began. #ctl #p2 #maddow pic.twitter.com/WESsTSpgg2
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) May 24, 2019
The order comes as William Barr, Trump’s lapdog attorney general, is in the process of reviewing what he and the president called “spying” on the 2016 presidential campaign.
This sends a dangerous message to the U.S. intelligence community
First, Trump’s new order reads like a threat to the agencies in the U.S. government that exist to keep the country safe. It’s a continuation of the pattern of disrespect he has shown toward his own intelligence community since taking office.
After all, Trump stood on the world stage in Helsinki and pledged his allegiance to Russian president Vladimir Putin over the men and women who work day and night to keep the country safe from enemies foreign and domestic.
But even more important – and dangerous – is the message this order sends to the intelligence community going forward.
By ordering them to “quickly and fully cooperate” with this actual witch hunt, Trump is essentially saying that if the intelligence community does its job and doesn’t act as his protector, then he will come at them.
As former DOJ official David Laufman said after the president issued the order, Trump’s move is “a grotesque abuse of the intelligence community to further his goal of political retribution, made worse by the spectacle of the Justice Department as his handmaiden.”
It’s the stuff of authoritarian regimes, not the United State of America.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
