Back to their old tricks
In my considered judgment, the raid on Trump’s home is the worst abuse of FBI power since Director J. Edgar Hoover set out to destroy civil rights leader Martin Luther King with wiretaps and blackmail in the 1960s (closely followed by the Ruby Ridge siege in 1992 and Waco siege in 1993 – if one is keeping score).
From the March on Washington in 1963 until his assassination in 1968, the bureau, with the complicity of Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, engaged in an intense campaign to discredit Dr King and his legacy, mainly for his anti-Vietnam War position.
The FBI campaign against the civil rights leader began with wiretaps and went from there.
What goes around, comes around
America, like a lot of troubled places on planet Earth, has become a place where politicians seek to have the opposition jailed, while their followers are labelled and hunted.
It matters not who started it, it only matters how it finishes.
Republicans require only 218 seats in the House to open their own impeachment proceedings – America’s latest blood sport – and begin the process of criminalising the opposition.
Democratic ringleaders who have pursued Trump through two impeachments, the Mueller Report, and the January 6 hearing can look forward to being hoisted on their own petard.
Half of America believes the attempt to discredit Trump is a political hack job, and that the raid is a last desperate effort to disqualify Trump from seeking re-election.
Instead, the raid has given Trump not only a once-in-lifetime election promo but also a golden campaign fund raiser.
Next to the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms), Americans worship their Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches or seizure of their property.
The image of the FBI breaking down the door to a man’s home and castle – and with a safe cracker in tow – is not good optics.
What the fuss is about
The FBI reportedly recovered documents labelled "top secret" and "sensitive compartmentalised information" from Trump’s estate – 11 sets of classified records in all.
Justice’s greatest, purported concern was that allowing highly-classified materials, whether extremely sensitive operations or closely-held technologies or capabilities, to remain in Trump’s possession, could leave them vulnerable to efforts by foreign adversaries to acquire them.
That's the cover story.
The search warrant reveals something far more sinister.
Agents were also authorised to seize – and here is the rub - "any government and/or Presidential Records created between January 20, 2017, and January 20,2021".
This is what the January 6 hearing was fishing for.
Since only one to three per cent of Presidential documents and materials are deemed historical enough to be preserved forever by the National Archives, it’s important to get in early.
And even then, scholars and the public may have to wait for 20-25 years to gain access before they are "declassified".
Joe Biden’s Attorney General knew exactly what he was doing when he ordered the FBI to raid Trump’s home.
Professor Joseph Siracusa is Professor of Political History and International Diplomacy at Curtin University.
https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/trump-raid-sunk-the-fbi-to-a-historic-low-las...The Bidden Pelosi Schumer gerontocracy got sucked in. So laff.